^ '' 



k .- -^ 




m 



r-^^' 



. / 



fr^. 




i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

f'j 

3 - - - I 

a If N I T E 1) S T A r E S V A M E U I C A . | 



LORD GLENELG'S 

DESPATCHES 



Sir F. B. HEAD, Bart 



DURING HIS ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OP 



UPPER CANADA. 



ABSTRACTED FROM THE PAPERS LAID BEFORE PARLIAMENT. 






■.,>.;,' 



LONDON ; 
JAMES RIDGWAY AND SONS^ PICCADILLY, 



1839. 



P7. 



/^ 



\j 



1? 



PaiNTEJ) BY J. HARRISON AND SON, ORCHARD STKBJiT, WESTMINSTER. 



0$- 



^ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



No. 

1. December 5, 1835. 

2. December 30, 

3. February 2, 1836. 

4. March 22, ■ 



5. March 

6. March 

7. May 

8. June 

9. June 
10. July 



22, 
30, 
31, 
13, 

14, 
25, 



11. July 25,- 

12. July 25, ■ 

13. July 25, • 

14. July 25, 

15. July 30, 

16. August 20, 

17. August 24, • 

18. September 6, 

19. September 8, 

20. September 12, 

21. September 22, 

22. September 30, 

23. October 4, 
24; October 31, 

25. October 31, 

26. November 29, 

27. November 29, 



Page 
1 
23 
23 
23 
26 
SO 
31 

32 
32 



Instructions 

Aid-de-Camp . . 

Aid-de-Camp . . 

Publication of Instructions, &c. 

Baronetcy, Table Allowance, &c. 

The Executive Council 

Prorogation of the Assembly . . 

Petition to Plouse of Commons from the 
Assembly . . 

Baronetcy, &c.. . 

Office of Surveyor-General. Dissolution 
of Assembly. — Executive Council. — 
Answers to Addresses. — Baronetcy 35 
Executive Council . . . . . . 42 

Mr. Bidwell . . , . . . . . 42 

Dr. Rolph 43 

Mr. T. D. Morrison 43 

Mr. Baldwin 44 

Mr. Baldwin 49 

Orange Lodges . . . . . . 72 

Money Bills confirmed .. .. 73 

Dr. Duncombe's Petition. — Baronetcy 74 
Dr. Duncombe . . . . , . 79 

Dr. Duncombe . . . . , . 84 

New Brunswick.— Civil List Bill . . 98 
Land Granting System . . . . 117 

New Brunswick. — Civil List Bill . . 118 
Correspondence with Mr. Hume . . 124 
Mr. Ridout's removal from Office . . 128 
Mr. J. Macaulay — Office of Surveyor- 
General .. .. .. ., 130 



IV 



No. 

28. January 



3, 1837. 



Page 



29. January 4, 

30. January 6, 

31. January 26, 

32. January 27, 

33. January 28, 

34. January 31, 

35. February 26, 

36. March 2, 

37. March 27, 



38. April 

39. April 

40. April 

41. April 

42. April 

43. July 

44. July 

45. July 



5, 
17, 
17, 
20, 
20, 
14, 
23, 
29, 



46. August 26, 

47. September 7, 

48. October 4, 

49. October 26, — — 

50. November 8, — — 

5 1 . November 24, — — 

52. December 30, 

53. December 30, 

54. January 30, 1838. 



55. March 16, 

56. March 17, 

57. April 20, 



58. April 

59. April 

60. July 



19, 
25, 
29, 



131 
132 
133 
136 
136 

137 



Road Bills— Appointment of Com- 
missioners . . 
Tour of Inspection 
Rephes to his Complaints 
Political state of the Canadas 
Messrs. Baldwin and Morrison 
Mr. Sullivan, Commissioner of Crown 

Lands 

Address of the Speaker of the Assembly 138 
Municipal Elections ., .. ,.138 

Remarks on his Administration of 
Upper Canada .. .. ..139 

Mr. Sullivan, Commissioner of Crown 
Lands . . . . . . . . 141 

Mr. Ridout's removal from office . . 141 
Baronetcy . . ' . . . . . . 148 

Dr. Duncombe . . • • . . 148 

Dr. Duncombe , . . . . . 148 

Address of the House of Assembly . . 149 
Mr. Hagerman and Mr. Bidwell . . 149 
Meeting of the Legislature . . . . 156 

Suspension of Specie Payments Upper 
Canada Bank . . . . . . 156 

Banks — Cash payments .. .. 157 

Churches — Clergy Reserves, and Ec- 
clesiastical Establishments ... 158 

Outfit— Salary, &c 160 

Resignation . . . . . . ..163 

Mr. Hagerman and Mr. Draper . . 163 
Replies to his Complaints, Resignation 
accepted . . . . . . . . 164 

Militia 185 

Mr. Ridout 185 

Insurrectionary Movement — Loyalty of 

the Militia 186 

Mr. Ridout 188 

United States.. 188 

United States' inroads — Defeat of the 
Insurgents . . . . . , . . 1 89 

Sir F. Head's Salary 190 

Sir F. Head's Salary . . .. ..192 

Sir F. Head's Salary 193 



LORD GLENELG'S DESPATCHES 



to 



SIR F. B. HEAD. 



No. 1. — Copy of a Despatch from Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B» 

Head,K.C,H. 
Sir, Downing-street, ^th December, 1835. 

I HAVE the honour herewith to transmit to you a commis- 
sion under His Majesty's sign manual appointing you Ueu- 
tenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada, 

You have been selected for this office at an era of more 
difficulty and importance than any which has hitherto occurred 
in the history of that part of His Majesty's dominions. The 
expression of confidence in your discretion and ability which 
the choice itself imphes would only be weakened by any more 
formal assurance which I could convey to you. 

In the following instructions I shall presuppose your know- 
ledge of many occurrences, the correct understanding of which 
is essential to the discharge of the duties to which you are 
called, but which it is unnecessary for me to recapitulate. As, 
however, a more exact acquaintance with Canadian affairs is 
indispensable for your guidance in the administration of the 
government of Upper Canada, I think it right to refer you to 
those sources of information on which you will be able most 
safely to rely. Amongst these, the first place is due to the 
Journals of the Legislative Council and of the House of General 
Assembly. The appendices subjoined to the annual summary of 
the proceedings of the two houses contain a fund of information 
on almost every topic connected with the statistics and political 
interests of the province ; and to those reports you will be able 
to resort with far greater confidence than to any other source 

B 



of similar intelligence. The report of the committee of the 
house of commons of the year 1828, with the evidence, oral 
and documentary, to which it refers, will also throw much light 
on the progress and the actual state of the questions agitated in 
the upper province. The correspondence of my predecessors 
and myself, with the officers who have successively administered 
the provincial government, will of course engage your careful 
attention. 

In Upper Canada, as in all countries which enjoy the blessing 
of a free constitution, and of a legislature composed in part of 
the representatives of the people, the discussion of public 
grievances, whether real or supposed, has always been con- 
ducted with an earnestness and freedom of inquiry, of which, 
even when occasionally carried to exaggeration, no reasonable 
complaint can be made. The representatives of the Canadian 
people, if departing at times from the measured style and exact 
terms in which the investigation of truth may perhaps be most 
successfully conducted, have yet, even in the agitation of ques- 
tions the most deeply affecting the interests of their constituents, 
exhibited a studious respect for the person and authority of 
their sovereign, and a zealous attachment to the principles of 
their balanced constitution. Until the last session of the 
provincial parliament, the remonstrances of the house were 
chiefly confined to insulated topics of complaint : discussions 
indeed occasionally arose, and discontent was occasionally 
manifested; but it may be affirmed, that generally there sub- 
sisted a spirit of amicable co-operation between the executive 
government and the legislature. 

The cession by His Majesty of the revenues raised under the 
statute 14 Geo. 3. c. 88. to the appropriation of the house of 
assembly, was a gratuitous and unsolicited act, and was ac- 
cepted by that body in a spirit of grateful cordiality. 

I will not pause to recapitulate the events which immediately 
preceded, if they did not produce the interruption of this 
mutual good understanding. It is sufficient for my present 
object to observe that the relations which had formerly sub- 
sisted between the executive government and the represen- 
tatives of the people underwent an entire change immediately 
after the elections which took place in the autumn of 1834. 
The supporters of the local government now for the first time .^ 



found themselves in a constant minority on every question 
controverted between them and their political antagonists. A 
committee of grievances was appointed, by which a report was 
made impugning the administration of affairs in every depart- 
ment of the public service, and calling for remedial measures of 
such magnitude and variety as, apparently, to embrace every 
conceivable topic of complaint. Having adopted this report, and 
having directed its publication in an unusual form, the house 
transmitted, through the lieutenant-governor, to the King, an 
address, in which some of the more considerable of the claims 
of the committee were urged in terms of no common emphasis. 

It will be your first duty on the assumption of the govern- 
ment to convey to the house the answer which His Majesty 
has been advised to return to these representations. 

I cannot proceed to explain the terms of that answer without 
the preliminary remark, with a view to which the preceding 
statement has been chiefly made. Whatever may be the 
justice of the complaints now preferred respecting the general 
principles on which the public affairs of the province have been 
conducted, the representatives of the people of Upper Canada 
are at least not entitled to impute to the confidential advisers 
of the King any disregard of their remonstrances. The greater 
part of the grievances detailed by the committee and the house 
are now for the first time brought by them under His Majesty's 
notice. My predecessor, the Earl of Ripon, in his despatch of 
the 8th of November, 1832, to Sir John Colborne, was com- 
manded by the King to state, that ^^ there was no class of the 
Canadian people, nor any individual amongst them, to whose 
petitions His Majesty did not require that the most exact and 
respectful attention should be given.'' His Majesty has never 
ceased to be actuated by the spirit which dictated those instruc- 
tions, and of course will not deny to the house of general 
assembly that careful investigation of the grounds of their com- 
plaints, which he graciously pledged himself to bestow on the 
representation of any individual petitioner. I feel myself there- 
fore entitled, on behalf of His Majesty's government, to object 
to any resort on the part of the house to that ulterior measure 
to which they allude, but which they will feel with me is to be 
justified only by an extreme emergency. 

I now proceed to the consideration of the various topics em- 
braced in the seventh report of the committee of grievances, 

B 2 



and in the addresses of the two houses to His Majesty ; and I 
shall advert to them in the order in ^ hich they are pursued in 
the report itself. 

In the following pages, if any subject should appear to be 
passed over without due regard, you will understand that I have 
at least been guilty of no intentional omission, but have, in 
obedience to His Majesty's commands, made it my endeavour 
to meet every question which the committee and the house 
have thought it necessary or proper to raise. 

1. It is stated that ^^ the almost unlimited extent of the 
patronage of the crown, or rather of the colonial minister for the 
time being, and his advisers here, together with the abuse of 
that patronage, are the chief sources of colonial discontent. 
Such (it is added) is the patronage of the Colonial Office, that 
the granting or withholding of supplies is of no political import- 
ance, unless as an indication of the opinion of the country con- 
cerning the character of the government, which is conducted on 
a system that admits its officers to take and apply the funds of 
the colonists without any legislative vote w^hatever.*' The com- 
mittee then proceed to an enumeration of the various public 
offices and the different departments and branches of the public 
service, over which this patronage is said to extend ; and by 
bringing the whole into one view they suggest what must be the 
amount of the authority and influence accruing to the executive 
government from these sources. 

The statement is substantially this : that the number of 
public offices in the colony is too great, and that the patronage, 
instead of being vested, as at present, in the crown and the 
local representative of the crown, should be transferred to 
other hands. 

In the long enumeration of places at the disposal of the 
executive government in Upper Canada, the committee have 
not adverted to one consideration to which I think that great 
prominence might justly be assigned. It is perfectly true, as 
it is quite inevitable, that in Upper Canada, as in other new 
countries, the number of public employments is and will be far 
larger in proportion than in older and more densely-peopled 
states. The general machinery of government must be the 
same in a scanty as in a large and redundant population ; cor- 
responding departments of the public service, whether legisla- 
tive, judicial, or administrative, must exist in both. And in a 



5 

liew country^ besides^ there will be some establishments for 
whiclij in the settled states of Europe^ no counterpart can be 
found ; such^ for example^ are all which .relate to the allocation, 
surveyings and granting of wild lands. Nor is it to be forgotten, 
that in the early stages of such a society many duties devolve 
upon the government which at a more advanced period are 
undertaken by the better educated and wealthier classes as an; 
honourable occupation of their leisure time. Thus in the 
Canadas, although the mere text of the law would there^ as in 
England^ authorize any man to prefer and prosecute an indict- 
ment in His Majesty^s name^ yet virtually and in substance the 
prosecution of all offences is confided to the government or its 
officers.- These causes have inevitably tended to swell the 
amount of the patronage of the provincial government^ without 
supposing any peculiar avidity on their part for the exercise of 
such power. 

With respect to the patronage ^of the requisite offices, His 
Majesty^s government are not solicitous to retain more in their 
own hands or in those of the governor than is necessary for the 
general welfare of the people and the right conduct of public 
affairs. I confess myself, however, unable to perceive to whom 
the choice amongst candidates for public employment could 
with equal safety be confided. It requires but little foresight 
or experience to discover that such patronage, if exercised in 
any form of popular election, or if committed to any popular 
body, would be liable to be employed for purposes far less 
defensible, and in a manner less conducive to the general good. 
Chosen by irresponsible patrons, the public officers would 
themselves be virtually exempt from responsibility ; and all 
the discipline, and subordination which should connect together 
in one unbroken chain the King and his representative in the 
province, down to the lowest functionary to whom any portion 
of the powers of the state may be confided, would be immedi- 
ately broken. 

I conclude, therefore, that as in such a country as Canada 
there must exist a number of pubhc officers, large in proportion 
to the present number and v^^ealth of the inhabitants, so the 
selection of them must, for the most part, be entrusted to the 
head of the local government. 

I disclaim, however, on the part of the ministers of the crown, 
every wish to urge these general principles beyond their just 



6 

and necessary limits. There are cases in which I think, accord- 
ing to the analogy of similar cases in this country, the patronage 
now said to be exercised by the lieutenant-governor might 
with perfect safety and propriety be transferred to others. On 
this subject, however, it wiU be more convenient to state the 
general principle than to attempt the specific and detailed 
apphcation of it at this distance from the scene of action. 

That principle is, to maintain entire, by the nomination and 
removal of public officers, that system of subordination which 
should connect the head of the government with every person 
through whose instrumentality he is to exercise the various 
delegated prerogatives of the crown. What is necessary for 
this end must be retained ; whatever patronage is unnecessary 
for the maintenance of this principle should be frankly and at 
once abandoned. 

It is noticed in the report, as an aggravation of the evils of 
the government patronage, that almost every public officer holds 
his place at the pleasure of the crown. I cannot disguise my 
opinion, that the pubhc good would be little advanced if the 
subordinate functionaries held their places upon a more certain 
tenure. In practice, indeed, though subject to certain excep- 
tions to be hereafter noticed, no pubhc officer is in danger of 
losing his employment, except for misconduct or incompetency ; 
but there are many kinds of misconduct and incompetency 
which could never be made the subject of judicial investigation, 
but which yet would be destructive of the usefulness of a pubHc 
officer, and ought therefore to be followed by a dismissal from 
the pubhc service. Nor is it necessary to insist at any length 
on the evils which would arise in the transaction of business, 
if the subordinate officers were aware that they were entirely 
independent of the good opinion of their superiors for continu- 
ance in their employments. 

It is not difficult to show, in reference to any conceivable 
arrangement on the subject of patronage, that there will be 
dangers against which it is impossible to take an absolute and 
perfect security. I know not, however, that any less excep- 
tionable scheme could be devised than that which at present 
prevails, of giving to the head of the local government the choice 
of the subordinate officers, and of making their places dependent 
on His Majesty^s pleasure. To prevent, however, as far as may 
be possible, the continuance of any well-founded ground of 



complaint on tliis head. His Majesty, disclaiming for himself 
and for his representative in the province all desire to exercise, 
with the view merely to patronage, the power of appointing 
public ofl&cers, is pleased to prescribe for your guidance the 
following rules : — 

First. You will, at the earliest opportunity, enter into a dili- 
gent review of the offices in the appointment of the crown and 
of the local government, as detailed in the report of the com- 
mittee and the appendix, with a view to ascertain to what extent 
they may, without impairing the efficiency of the public service, 
be reduced immediately and prospectively. You will report to 
me the result of your investigation, with such particular infor- 
mation as will enable His Majesty's Government to decide in 
each case on the expediency of adopting your recommendation. 

Secondly. If, during the reference of that report to me, any 
occasion occur for the reduction of offices, either by abolition 
or by consolidation, you will exercise your own discretion as to 
waiting for fresh instructions, or proceeding at once to the re- 
duction. Any appointment, however, made under such circum- 
stances wiU be merely provisional. In case of the immediate 
abolition of any office not required for the efficient discharge of 
the public service, you will stipulate for such a compensation to 
the present holders as the disappointment of their reasonable 
expectations may entitle them to receive. 

Thirdly. In the prescribed revision of these offices you will 
make it one of your objects to form a judgment, what share of 
the patronage of the crown or the local government may safely 
and wisely be transferred to other hands. You will report to 
me on this subject, but will refrain from taking any steps re- 
garding it without further instructions from me. 

Fourthly. In the selection of persons to execute public 
trusts, you will be guided exclusively by the comparison of the 
claims which the different candidates may derive from past ser- 
vices or from personal qualifications. 

Fifthly. In general, you will not select for any public em- 
ployment in Upper Canada any person who is not either a na- 
tive or a settled inhabitant of the province. To this general 
rule occasional exceptions may be admitted ; as in cases where 
some peculiar art or science is demanded which no provincial 
candidate may be found to possess in the requisite degree. An 
exception must also be made in reference to those officers who 



8 

are immediately attached to your own person^ in tlie choice of 
whom His Majesty does not think it right to subject you to any 
such restriction. 

Sixthly. As often as any office shall be vacant, which is not 
to be suppressed, and of which the annual emolument shall 
exceed £200, you will make the appointment provisional only, 
and with the distinct intimation to the party elected, that his 
confirmation will depend entirely on the estimate which His 
Majesty may form of his pretensions ; and you will on every 
such occasion signify to me, for His Majesty^s information, the 
grounds on which you have proceeded, and the motives which 
have directed your choice. If His Majesty should be pleased to 
issue, under his sign manual, a warrant authorizing you to make 
a grant of the office, under the public seal of the province, then, 
and not till then, the appointment must be considered as finally 
ratified. I trust that in these regulations the house of assembly 
will perceive a sufficient proof of His Majesty^s settled purpose 
to exercise this branch of his prerogative for no other end than 
the general good of his Canadian subjects, and to prevent its 
being converted into an instrument of promoting any narrow, 
exclusive, or party designs. 

2. Pursuing the order observed by the committee, I pass on 
to the subject of the provincial post-office. Adverting to the 
measures which have already been taken for the redress of the 
grievances which have been alleged to exist in the conduct of 
this department, the committee observe, that " the form of a 
law such as the government would approve is before the house; 
but its provisions (they add) are so inapplicable and absurd that 
no benefit could be derived from their enactment.^^ 

On the measure thus characterized, I am not called to give 
an opinion. It is, however, but fair to those by whom it was 
recommended to the adoption of the local legislature to observe, 
that it had previously undergone a most careful investigation by 
the postmaster-general. His Majesty^s government cannot have 
the slightest wish to urge the adoption of any measure to which 
well-founded and sufficient objections may exist ; they are 
content that the bill in question should be withdrawn, to make 
way for any other which the assembly may be disposed to sub- 
stitute for it. Perhaps, however, on approaching the question 
more closely the assembly may find it encumbered with unex- 
pected diffictdties. I fear that this will be the case, especially 



in reference to the intercourse by post^ with all places beyond 
the limits of the province itself. You will, however, assent to any 
judicious and practicable scheme which the house may incor- 
porate in any bill tendered for your acceptance ; regarding as of 
no weight whatever, when opposed to the general convenience 
of the public, any considerations of patronage, or of revenue 
derivable from this source. 

3. Under the head of salaries and fees, the committee have 
entered into very copious statements to show that the emolu- 
ments of the public officers in Upper Canada are excessive, 
and out of all just proportion to the value of the services ren- 
dered. It is unnecessary for me to enter into these details, 
because, as to the general principles on which it will be your 
duty to act on questions of this nature, there can be no room 
for controversy. Indeed, those principles will, I think, be most 
conveniently considered, when divested of topics connected with 
the interests and the services of particular persons. 

There is no measure of retrenchment compatible with the 
just claims of His Majesty^s various officers, and with the effi- 
cient discharge of the public service and duty, to which the 
king is not disposed to give a prompt and cheerful assent. To 
determine what ought to be the scale of remuneration to public 
functionaries of different classes, would require information too 
minute and exact to be obtained beyond the limits of the pro- 
vince itself. This would appear a very fit subject for a special 
inquiry, in which it might be proper to employ commissioners 
to be appointed under the authority of an act of the assembly. 
I have reason to suppose that the subject has never yet under- 
gone a full and fair investigation ; and therefore I do not feel 
myself entitled to assume the non-existence of those abuses 
which so readily grow up under a system which is not subjected 
to a careful scrutiny, conducted upon permanent and enlightened 
views of pubhc economy. Even if the result of the examination 
should be only to show that there is no evil of this nature to be 
remedied, the labour would be amply repaid, by placing so 
important a fact beyond the reach of all reasonable suspicion. 

In deahng with existing interests, the local legislature will, I 
doubt not, be well disposed to adopt the rules which have been 
uniformly taken by parliament for the guidance of their dis- 
cretion in similar cases. The saving of public money which 
could arise from the unexpected reduction of official incomes. 



10 

would not only subject numerous families to extreme distress, 
but by impairing general confidence in the public credit, would 
weaken the foundations on which all proprietary rights must 
ultimately repose. 

The King confidently relies on his faithful subjects of Upper 
Canada, that they will not reduce His Majesty to the distressing 
alternative of either abandoning the just interests of any of his 
servants, or opposing himself to measures having for their 
object the reduction of public expenditure. 

4. Next in the order of complaints is that which relates to 
the amount of the pension list. On this, as on the subject 
which I have last noticed, I conceive that I shall better discharge 
my duty by attempting to provide against any future abuse 
than by engaging in a minute retrospect of any which may have 
already occurred. I will not even pause on the comparison, not 
perhaps very accurately or necessarily instituted, between the 
conduct of the central government of the United States of 
America, and that which has been pursued in one of the pro- 
vinces of the British empire, respecting the remuneration of 
officers for past services. Such pensions as have aheady been 
charged upon the revenues, which were at the disposal of the 
crown, constitute a debt to the payment of which His Majesty's 
honour is pledged; nor need I state that there is no consideration 
so powerful as to induce the King to assent to the violation of any 
engagement lawfully and advisedly entered into by himself, or 
by any of his royal predecessors. 

On the other hand His Majesty is content, that the most 
effectual security should be taken against any improvident 
increase of the pension list by any future grants, and is willing 
that a limit should be fixed by law to any charge which may 
hereafter be imposed upon the provincial revenues on this 
account. 

I do not anticipate that the assembly of Upper Canada would 
wish to withhold from the King, the means of rewarding faithful 
and zealous public services, or would think it desirable that no 
provision shall ever be made by His Majesty, to solace the 
declining years of those who have consumed, in laborious public 
duties in the colony, the larger portion of their Hves. 

You will therefore assent to any law which may be tendered 
for your acceptance, of which the object shall be to regulate, 
on a just and reasonable scale, the amount of the future pension 



11 

list of Upper Canada^ and to prescribe the principles upon 
which any pensions shall be granted. 

5. I proceed to the subject of the provision made for eccle- 
siastical establishments, and for the maintenance of the teachers 
of rehgion of various denominations. 

On this head the house of assembly maintain opinions from 
which, in their address to His Majesty of the 13th April, the 
legislative council have recorded their most entire and earnest 
dissent. The report states, that ^^ the house of assembly, in 
several successive parliaments, has expressed its entire dis- 
approbation of the conduct of the government in attempting to 
uphold particular religious sects by money grants, and in the 
10th and 11th parhaments has declared, that it recognizes no 
particular denomination as established in Upper Canada, with 
exclusive claims, powers, or privileges. ^^ 

It appears that the four religious communities, whose funds 
are aided by grants from the hereditary and territorial revenue, 
are those of the churches of England, and Scotland, and Rome, 
and of the Wesleyan Methodist Society ; the last being in two 
divisions, which respectively take the distinct appellation of the 
" Canadian^' and the " British.'" 

In the last session of the provincial parliament, a bill was 
passed by the assembly, the object of which was to enable 
certain commissioners to sell the lands, which, under the Con- 
stitutional Act of 1791, had been appropriated in Upper Canada 
to the maintenance of a Protestant clergy, and to pay over the 
proceeds to the receiver-general, to be disposed of, under the 
future direction of the legislature, for the promotion of education, 
and for no other purpose whatever. 

This bill was rejected by the legislative council, on the grounds 
noticed in the address from that body to His Majesty, and in a 
report from a select committee, appointed by them to take the 
bill into consideration, which report is enclosed in Sir John 
Colborne's despatch of the 20th May, No. 20. 

Your predecessor and the council agree in the opinion, that 
it is vain to expect the concurrence of the two branches of the 
local legislature in any adjustment of this question, and they 
therefore invoke the interposition of parHament ; which inter- 
position the assembly, on the other hand, deprecate with equal 
earnestness. 

The chief practical question then, which at present demands 



32 

consideration, isj, whether His Majesty should be advised to 
recommend to parhament the assumption to itself of the office 
of deciding on the future appropriation of these lands. There 
are two distinct reasons_, both of which appear to me conclu- 
sively to forbid that course of proceeding. 

First. Parliamentary legislation on any subject of exclusively 
internal concern^ in any British colony possessing a represen- 
tative assembly^ is, as a general rule, unconstitutional. It is a 
right of which the exercise is reserved for extreme cases, in 
which necessity at once creates and justifies the exception. 

But important as is the question of the clergy reserves in 
Upper Canada, yet I cannot find in the actual state of the ques- 
tion any such exigency as would vindicate the imperial legis- 
lature in transferring to themselves the settlement of this con- 
troversy. The conflict of opinion between the two houses upon 
this subject, much as it is to be lamented, yet involves no urgent 
danger to the peace of society, and presents no insuperable 
impediment to the ordinary administration of public affairs. 
Although a great evil, it is not such as to exclude every hope of 
mitigation by the natural progress of discussion, and by the 
influence of that spirit which, in public afikirs, not seldom 
suggests to parties alike solicitous for the general good some 
mutual surrender of extreme views, and some compromise on 
either side of diff'erences which at first sight might have appeared 
irreconcileable. Until every prospect of adjusting this dispute 
within the province itself shall have been distinctly exhausted, 
the time for the interposition of parhament will not have 
arrived, unless indeed both houses shall concur in soliciting that 
interposition ; in which event there would of course be an end 
to the constitutional objections already noticed. 

The second ground on which I think myself bound to abstain 
from advising His Majesty from referring this question imme- 
diately to parliament is, that the authors of the constitutional 
act have declared this to be one of those subjects in regard to 
which the initiative is expressly reserved and recognized as 
falling within the peculiar province and the special cognizance 
of the local legislature, although its ultimate completion is no 
less distinctly made to depend, in addition to the ordinary sub- 
mission to His Majesty, on the acquiescence of the Imperial 
parliament. 

It is not difficult to perceive the reasons which induced pa^- 



13 

liament in 1791 to connect with a reservation of land for eccle- 
siastical purposes the special delegation to the council and 
assembly of the right to vary that provision by any bill which, 
being reserved for the signification of His Majesty^s pleasure, 
should be communicated to both houses of parhament for six 
weeks before that decision was pronounced. Remembering, it 
should seem, how fertile a source of controversy ecclesiastical 
endowments had supplied throughout a large part of the chris- 
tian world, and how impossible it was to foretell with precision 
what might be the prevailing opinions and feelings of the Cana- 
dians on this subject at a future period, parliament at once 
secured the means of making a systematic provision for a pro- 
testant clergy, and took full precaution against the eventual 
inaptitude of that system to the more advanced stages of a 
society then in its infant state, and of which no human foresight 
could divine the more mature and settled judgment. 

In the controversy, therefore, respecting ecclesiastical endow- 
ments, which at present divides the Canadian legislature, I find 
no unexpected element of agitation, the discovery of which 
demands a departure from the fixed principles of the con- 
stitution, but merely the fulfilment of the anticipations of 
parliament in 1791, in the exhibition of that conflict of opinion 
for which the statute of that year may be said to have made a 
deliberate preparation. In referring the subject to the future 
Canadian legislature, the authors of the constitutional act must 
be supposed to have contemplated the crisis at which we have 
now arrived, the era of warm and protracted debate, which in a 
free government may be said to be a necessary precursor to the 
settlement of any great principle of national policy. We must 
not have recourse to an extreme remedy merely to avoid the 
embarrassment, which is the present though temporary result of 
our own deliberate legislation. 

I think, therefore, that to withdraw from the Canadian to the 
Imperial legislature the question respecting the clergy reserves 
would be an infringement of that cardinal principle of colonial 
government which forbids parliamentary interference, except in 
submission to an evident and well-established necessity. 

Without expressing any further opinion at present on the ge- 
neral objects of the bill of last session, I think the effect of that 
bill would, as it appears, have been to constitute the assembly 
not merely the arbiters respecting the disposal of the funds to 



14 

be raised by the sale of these lands, but the active and inde- 
pendent agents in eiFecting those sales, and thus to invest them 
with the appropriate functions of the executive government. 

6. The report of the committee next passes to the subject 
of the land granting department. 

Admitting that Lord Ripon^s despatch shows that the 
grievances under this head have been in part removed, it is ob- 
served that the extent of that rehef is not very clearly shown by 
the documents before the committee. 

It is difficult, or rather impossible, for me to advance further 
in meeting the views of the assembly thus briefly expressed, 
than by stating, that if any ambiguity can be pointed out in 
Lord Ripon^s instructions respecting the grant of lands it shall 
be immediately removed, and that if His Majesty^s officers in 
the province can be shown to have disregarded those instinic- 
tions, it will be your duty to enforce the most prompt and exact 
obedience to them to the full extent of their spirit and intention, 
insomuch that there shall in future be no doubt whether the 
grievances at which they aimed have or have not been com- 
pletely removed. 

7. Respecting the collegiate institutions of the province, 
the assembly express their opinion that the Upper Canada College 
^' is upheld at great pubhc expense, with high salaries to its 
principal masters ; but that the province in general derives very 
little advantage from it, and that it might be dispensed with.^^ 

His Majesty^s government can have no wish to retain any 
charge for this establishment which may be more than adequate 
to provide for the effective performance of the duties of the 
teachers. Any wise retrenchment of that nature may, subject 
to the principles already mentioned, be immediately introduced. 
That the province derives httle benefit from this college is a 
fact of which the explanation is to be found, not in the princi- 
ple of the institution itself, but in some error of management, 
susceptible, as it should seem, of an easy remedy. It is impos- 
sible to believe that in Upper Canada, as in other countries, 
advantages the most important would not result from a well 
ordered school for the education in the elementary branches of 
philosophy, science, and literature, of young men who aspire to 
fill the highest offices in society. Nor can I suppose it a light 
benefit thus to connect together the preparatory and the final 
studies of youth in one systematic plan, which, by rendering 



15 

the initiatory school a careful preparation for the university, 
may give to their entire education a character of solidity and 
consistency scarcely attainable by any other method. 

I shall therefore deeply lament the abolition of a college of 
which the defects would appear so remediable, and of which it 
does not seem easy to exaggerate the benefits. 

On the subject of King's College an unfortunate difference 
of opinion exists between the council and the assembly, which 
each of those bodies concurs in pronouncing incurable. 

His Majesty commands me to tender, through you, his me- 
diation on this subject. With the previous assent of both 
houses, the King wiU cheerfully resume the consideration of the 
question, in what manner a charter could be most conveniently 
prepared so as to promote the interests of science and litera- 
ture, and the study of theology and moral philosophy, with a 
due regard to the opinions which seem to prevail in the province 
respecting the proper constitution and objects of an university. 
But after having distinctly referred to the local legislature the 
duty of giving effect to their own wishes on the subject, in the 
form of an act of general assembly, His Majesty cannot, at the 
instance of one only of the two houses, withdraw it from their 
cognizance. 

8. The committee complain that a very considerable propor- 
tion of the sum, amounting to 31,728/. I8s, lid. expended 
in aid of emigration from Europe, was for ^^ articles or services 
not specified, and concerning which a committee of the house 
of assembly could know nothing, unless they were were to send 
for the detailed accounts and vouchers, which, if they had, it 
would be impossible to examine at the late period of the session 
at which the government sent down those statements.^' In the 
appendices to the reports, numbered 56 and 57, various items 
of this expenditure are noticed with apparent dissatisfaction. 
You will direct the public officers who have had the manage- 
ment of this fund to communicate to the house of assembly, 
with the utmost possible promptitude, the most minute and 
circumstantial details and explanations connected with it for 
which the house may be pleased to call. 

9. Next in order occurs the statement, that ^^ the present 
system of auditing the public accounts is altogether insufficient 
for ensuring the application of the revenue to the purposes for 
which it is intended to be applied." 



16 

The remedy suggested is that of establishing a board of 
audita of which the proceedings should be regulated by a well- 
considered statute under a responsible government. 

Deferring at present any remark on the expression " re- 
sponsible government/^ to which I sliall more conveniently 
advert hereafter^ I must express my agreement in the position 
that the establishment of a board of audit by law is the best 
remedy in this case. His Majesty will gladly concur in the 
enactment of any hw which shall be properly framed for 
constituting such a buard. With a view to aid the delibera- 
tions of the legislature, I transmit to you various documents 
explanatory of the constitution and proceedings of the commis- 
sion for auditing the public accounts of this kingdom. 

The assembly express their disbelief that any efficient 
measure of this kind will obtain the consent of the legislative 
council. I trust that this apprehension will be dispelled by 
the event. If unfortunately it should be confirmed, you will, 
in the exercise of His Majesty's delegated authority, proceed at 
once to constitute a board of audit, upon the principles of that 
which at present exists in this kingdom, so far as the two cases 
may be analogous ; and although I am aware that, unaided by 
positive legislation, such a board would be comparatively in- 
efficient, yet no inconsiderable advance would be thus made 
towards the introduction of an effective system of audit. 

If you should find it necessary to act on this instruction, 
great care must be used to prevent the new establishment from 
being converted into the means of any real or seeming abuse, 
in the way of an improvident increase of the patronage of the 
crown. Of a board consisting of five or three auditors, one 
alone should at first receive a salary, because the institution 
itself would be provisional only, and liable to revision so soon 
as a proper act could be passed for the purpose. I think it 
highly probable that amongst the gentlemen of the province 
most conversant with its financial interests, a sufficient number 
would be found, who as honorary and unpaid commissioners, 
would complete the board, and who, though not engaging in 
the mere ordinary routine of business, would exercise a general 
superintendence over the more important proceedings of the 
commission. Especially it would be requisite to obtain such 
aid in determining the number and remuneration of the clerks 
and other subordinate officers. But it must not be forgotten . 



17 

that the effective remedy, as the report observes, is to be found 
in a board established by law ; and I earnestly hope that a law 
to that effect may pass both houses of the legislature. 

10. The withholding of public accounts from the house 
of assembly is the next head of complaint. 

It is proposed, that to remedy this evil, a statute should be 
passed, providing the time and manner of making such returns, 
and naming the officers who should render them to the legisla- 
ture ; ^^ but,^^ add the committee, " it is wcF known that such an 
enactment would fail in the council, which has an interest in 
preventing the enforcement of practical accountability to the 
people .^^ 

Although I cannot permit myself to believe that the council 
would really oppose themselves to any judicious measure of this 
kind, I fear that such legislation would be found to involve 
many serious if not insuperable difficulties. I must object to 
the appointment of individuals for any purpose of this kind 
by name in a statute, or by any authority other than that of the 
King. Persons so appointed would exercise a control over all 
the functions of the executive government, and would have a 
right of inspecting the records of all public offices to such an 
extent as would leave His Majesty's representative, and all other 
public functionaries, little more than a dependent and subordi» 
nate authority. Further, such officers would be virtually irre- 
sponsible and independent. 

On this subject, however. His Majesty commands me to state, 
that there is no information connected with the receipt and 
expenditure of any part of the revenue of Upper Canada which 
he wishes to withhold from the representatives of the Canadian 
people. You will, immediately on your arrival in the province, 
apprise the heads of every public department by which any 
such funds are received or administered, that they must con- 
stantly keep in preparation, to be produced to the assembly, in 
compliance with any addresses which may be presented to you by 
that house, copies and abstracts of all public accounts; and you 
will consider in what form these can be drawn up, so as to 
exhibit all material information in the most complete and 
luminous manner. It will perhaps be possible to concert with 
the house before-hand some system for preparing such returns ; 
and as often as they may present to you addresses for such 
information you will promptly accede to their wishes, except in 

c 



18 

the extreme case, which it is difficult to suppose, of any demand 
oi that nature being made in such a form that the compHance 
with it would endanger some great public interest. 

11. The report then passes to the consideration of cases in 
which your predecessor is charged with having failed to show 
respect, even in subordinate matters, to the wishes of the house 
of assembly. 

I will not encumber this communication by entering into a 
review of the particular transactions noticed by the committee 
in illustration of this complaint ; I am not, indeed, sufficiently 
in possession of the facts, to enable me to do so; nor do I think 
it convenient to combine a personal discussion with a general 
statement of the principles by which your conduct is to be 
governed. 

The only general direction that I have to give you on this 
subject is, that you will always receive the addresses of the 
assembly with the most studious attention and courtesy. As 
far as may be consistent with your duty to the King, you will 
accede to their wishes cheerfully and frankly. Should that 
duty ever compel you to differ from their opinion, or to decline 
compliance with their desires, you will explain in the most 
direct, and of course in the most conciliatory, terms the grounds 
of your conduct. 

12. The next topic of complaint is, that many of the recom- 
mendations contained in Lord Ripon^s despatch of the 8th 
November, 1832, have not been carried into effect. Amongst 
these are especially mentioned such as relate to the amendment of 
the election laws, the non-interference of His Majesty's officers at 
elections, the disclosure to the house of the receipt and expen- 
diture of the crown revenue, the exclusion of ministers of religion 
from the legislative and executive councils, the reducing the 
costs of elections, the judicial independence, and the limitation 
of the number of public officers who may sit in the assembly. 

Adhering, without reserve or qualification, to all the instruc- 
tions issued under His Majesty's commands by Lord Ripon, the 
King is pleased to direct that you do adopt that despatch as a 
rule for the guidance of your own conduct, and that you exert 
your legitimate authority and influence to the utmost possible 
extent to carry into effect all such of his Lordship's suggestions 
as may still continue unfulfilled. 
' 13, The selection of justices of the peace is said to ^^have 



19 

been made chiefly from persons of a peculiar bias in politics, 
and to be the means of extending the power and influence of 
the colonial system/^ It is not in my power to verify the 
accuracy of this opinion ; and I am happy to feel myself relieved 
from the necessity of such an investigation. If any such abuse 
exists it cannot be too promptly or decisively remedied. When- 
ever any increase of the number may appear to you desirable 
you will propose to any gentleman in Upper Canada possessing 
the necessary qualifications of knowledge^ property and character 
and unquestionable fidehty to the Sovereign,, the assumption of 
the office of a justice of the peace^ without reference to any- 
political considerations. 

14. A very considerable part of the report is devoted to the 
statement and illustration of the fact^ that the executive govern- 
ment of Upper Canada is virtually irresponsible; and the 
conclusion drawn from this statement is, that under the present 
system there can be no prospect of a good and faithful adminis^ 
tration of public affairs. 

Without entering, on the one hand, unnecessarily into a 
discussion of those general principles to which my attention is 
thus invited, or digressing, on the other hand, into personal 
topics, it is enough for me to observe on the present occasion, 
that experience would seem to prove that the administration of 
public affairs in Canada is by no means exempt from the 
control of a practical responsibility. To His Majesty and to 
parliament the governor of Upper Canada is at all times most 
fuUy responsible for his official acts. That this responsibility 
is not merely nominal, but that His Majesty feels the most 
lively interest in the welfare of his Canadian subjects, and is 
ever anxious to devote a patient and laborious attention to any 
representations which they may address to him, either through 
their representatives or as individuals, is proved not only by 
the whole tenor of the correspondence of my predecessors in 
this office, but by the despatch which I am now addressing 
to you. That the imperial parhament is not disposed to 
receive with inattention the representations of their Canadian 
fellow subjects is attested by the labours of the committees 
which have been appointed by the house of commons during 
the last few years to inquire into matters relating to those 
provinces. 

It is the duty of the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada 

c 2 



20 

to vindicate to the King and to parliament every act of his ad- 
ministration. In the event of any representations being addressed 
to His Majesty upon the subject of your official conduct, you will 
have the highest possible claim to a favourable construction; but 
the presumptions which may reasonably be formed in your behalf 
will never supersede a close examination how far they coincide 
with the real facts of each particular case which may be brought 
under discussion. 

This responsibility to His Majesty and to parliament is 
second to none which can be imposed on a public man, and it 
is one which it is in the power of the house of assembly at 
any time, by address or petition, to bring into active operation. 

I further unreservedly acknowledge that the principle of 
effective responsibility should pervade every department of 
your government ; and for this reason, if for no other, I should 
hold that every public officer should depend on His Majesty's 
pleasure for the tenure of his office. If the head of any de- 
partment should place himself in decided opposition to your 
policy, whether that opposition be avowed or latent, it will be 
his duty to resign his office into your hands, because the system 
of government cannot proceed with safety on any other prin- 
ciple than that of the cordial co-operation of its various 
members in the same general plans of promoting the public 
good. The inferior members of the different offices should 
consider neutrality on this great litigated question of provincial 
policy as at once their duty and their privilege. Diligently 
obeying all the lawful commands of their superiors, they will be 
exempted from censure if the course which they have been 
directed to pursue should issue in any unfortunate results. 

Some of the members of the local government will also oc- 
casionally be representatives of the people in the assembly, or 
will hold seats in the legislative council. As members of the 
local legislature they will of course act with fidehty to the 
public, advocating and supporting no measures, which, upon a 
large view of the general interest, they shall not think it incum- 
bent on them to advance. But if any such person shall find 
himself compelled by his sense of duty to counteract the pohcy 
pursued by you as head of the government, it must be distinctly 
understood that the immediate resignation of his office is ex- 
pected of him, and that, failing such a resignation, he must, as 
a general rule, be suspended from it. Unless this course be 



21 

pursued^ it would be impossible to rescue the head of the 
government from the imputation of insincerity, or to conduct 
the administration of public affairs with the necessary firmness 
and decision. 

I need hardly say, that in the event of any pubhc officer 
being urged into a resignation of his place by his inability 
to give a conscientious support to his official superior, the 
merits of the question would undergo an investigation of 
more than common exactness by His Majesty^s ministers, and 
that His Majesty^s decision would be pronounced with a perfect 
impartiahty towards those who had the honour to serve him in 
the province, however high or however subordinate might be 
their respective stations. 

By a stedfast adherence to these rules, I trust that an effective 
system of responsibility would be established throughout the 
whole body of public officers in Upper Canada, from the 
highest to the lowest, without the introduction of any new and 
hazardous schemes, and without recourse to any system of 
which the prudence and safety have not been sufficiently ascer- 
tained by a long course of practical experience. 

15. I next advert to two subjects of far more importance 
than any of those to which I have hitherto adverted. I refer to 
the demand, made partly in the report of the committee, and 
partly in the address from the assembly to His Majesty, for 
changes in the mode of appointing legislative councillors, and 
for the control by the assembly of the territorial and casual 
revenues of the crown. 

On these subjects I am, to a considerable extent, relieved 
from the necessity of any particular investigation, because 
claims precisely identical have been preferred by the assembly 
of Lower Canada ; and because, in the instructions to the com- 
missioners of inquiry who have visited that province, I have 
already had occasion to state the views which have received 
His Majesty's deUberate sanction. The principles of govern- 
ment in the two sister provinces must, I am well aware, be in 
every material respect the same ; I shall therefore annex for 
your information, as an appendix to this despatch, so much of 
the instructions to the Earl of Gosford and his colleagues, as 
applies to these topics. 

In the prosecution of the inquiries of the commissioners in 
Lower Canada, they will be instructed to enter into full and 
unreserved communication with you upon these questions, and 



22 

to frame their report in such a manner as may enable His Ma- 
jesty to adopt a just and final conclusion upon the course to be 
pursued respecting them in both the Canadas. For this pur- 
pose, you will supply the commissioners with all the informa- 
tion which you may think necessary for them to receive, and 
with every suggestion which you may think it expedient to 
make for their assistance in comparing the state of these ques- 
tions in the two provinces. If it should ultimately appear 
desirable, the commission may perhaps be directed to resort to 
Upper Canada, there to pursue, in concurrence with yourself, a 
more exact inquiry into these subjects than they could institute 
at Quebec, in reference to the affairs of the upper province. 

In general, the Earl of Gosford and his colleagues will be 
directed to enter into unreserved communication with you, not 
only on the points just mentioned, but on every subject of 
common interest to the two provinces. You, on your part, will 
conduct yourself towards them in the most cordial spirit of 
frankness and co-operation. 

I have thus, in order, adverted to every subject to which the 
assembly of Upper Canada have called the attention of His 
Majesty^s government. You will communicate to the legisla- 
tive council, and to that house, the substance of this despatch, 
as containing the answer which His Majesty is pleased to make 
to the addresses and representations which I have had the 
honour to lay before him from the two houses in their last 
session. I trust that in this answer they will find sufficient 
evidence of the earnest desire by which His Majesty^s councils 
are animated to provide for the redress of every grievance 
by which any class of His Majesty^s Canadian subjects are 
affected. 

I close this communication with the expression of my earnest 
hope, and I trust not too confident belief, that the representa- 
tives of the people of Upper Canada will receive with gratitude 
and cordiality this renewed proof of His Majest3r^s paternal 
solicitude for the welfare of his loyal subjects in that province ; 
and that, laying aside all groundless distrusts, they will cheer- 
fully co-operate with the King, and with you, as His Majesty's 
representative, in advancing the prosperity of that interesting 
and valuable portion of the British empire. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



23 

No,2.'— Lord Glenelg to Sir F.B, Head, K,C,H. 
Sir, Downing-street, SOth December, 1 835 . 

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith the copies of a 
correspondence which has passed with the secretary at war on 
the subject of allowing to you, as lieutenant-governor of Upper 
Canada, the services of a military aide-de-camp, borne on the 
estabhshment of this country ; and you will observe, that under 
the peculiar circumstances of your appointment the secretary at 
war as consented, for the present, at least, to apply to the lords 
commissioners of the treasury, for permission to issue pay to 
the officer who may be selected by you to act as your aide-de- 
camp. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. S,—Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B, Head, K,C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 2nd February, 1836. 

With reference to my despatch of the SOth December, I 
have the honour to inform you, that the lords commissioners of 
the treasury have signified to me their assent to the arrangement 
proposed to them by the secretary at war for providing for the 
pay of your aide-de-camp, in the votes for staff services com- 
prised in the army estimates; and their lordships have also 
directed the commissary on the station to issue to that officer 
the allowances usually granted to military aides-de-camp. 

I beg, however, to remind you, that this arrangement is to 
be considered as merely of a provisional nature, to be dis- 
continued whenever it may become possible to provide for the 
pay and allowances of your aide-de-camp out of provincial funds. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 4,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 22nd March, 1836. 

I HAVE received your despatches, dated the 5th and the 
15th of February, Nos. 3 and 5, containing copies of the 
communications, which had passed between yourseK and the 
legislative council and assembly of Upper Canada. 

Before I pass to the particular subjects to which you have 
thus called my attention, I would avail myself of this com- 
mencement of our official correspondence as a fit opportunity. 



24 

for explaining the spirit in which I am anxious that it should 
be conducted. It is impossible that I should place implicit 
confidence in my own conclusions respecting passing events in 
Upper Canada as they are successively reported to me. 
Although I do not regard a personal observation of such occur- 
rences essential to a correct understanding of their character 
and tendency, yet at this distance from the scene it is often 
unavoidable that my judgment on such matters should for a 
considerable time be suspended; during any such interval I 
anticipate great relief and support from the reliance which I 
am happily entitled to repose in your discretion. I shall how- 
ever offer for your solution any doubts which may suggest 
themselves to me with perfect unreserve, and without yielding 
to the fear that you will ever misconstrue such inquiries into an 
expression of distrust, or of unavowed disapprobation. In the 
pursuit of the great object which we have in common, you will, 
I am sure, agree with me, that our official intercourse should be 
characterized both by an entire frankness and by mutual confi- 
dence, and that on either side the most indulgent and favourable 
construction should be given to every expression which may be 
susceptible of more than one meaning. 

Reverting now to the subject of the despatches to which I 
have referred, the first remark which occurs to me relates to the 
manner in which you made your inaugural address to the two 
houses of provincial legislature. It appears to have been deH- 
vered by you in person in the council chamber, although the 
session was still in progress. I presume that you considered 
this peculiarity in the mode of communicating with the legis- 
lature as required and justified by the novelty of the occasion. 
I should entirely concur in that opinion, if I were assured that 
neither of the houses would complain of having been thus 
summoned into the governor's presence, as a breach of their 
privileges. I trust that no such objection has been raised, or 
that if insisted on by any one, it will have been overruled by 
the good sense and right feeling of the legislative bodies. 

Your address to the council and assembly was judicious and 
well considered. 

In proceeding to communicate a complete transcript of your 
instructions, instead of the substance of them, you exercised a 
discretion which I do not venture to disapprove. It is impos- 
sible to prescribe for the guidance of an officer placed in such a 



25 

situation as yours rules of conduct on questions of this kind, so 
inflexible as not to yield to circumstances which could not be 
foreseen, or to the pressure of considerations which at this dis- 
tance could not be appreciated. 

The motives which prompted you to avow in the most public 
manner, that in thus divulging the precise terms of your instruc- 
tions you were acting in opposition to His Majesty^s orders, 
command my respect, even though I am not quite satisfied of 
their sufiiciency. Though less consonant with the frank and open 
bearing of your own character, it might have been more judicious 
to avoid the direct avowal of the fact that you were disregarding 
an express injunction of the King. In your solicitude to take 
upon yourseK the responsibility which you have thought it 
right to incur, you may perhaps have^ however unintention- 
ally, contributed a little to impair the respect due to the royal 
authority. 

I do not disguise from you my fears that the pubHcation of 
that part of the instructions to the commissioners in Lower 
Canada, which was subjoined to your own may have involved 
the Earl of Gosford in much embarrassment. I am not with- 
out an apprehension, that the effect of your having adopted a 
course, different from that which Lord Gosford had previously 
taken, may have been to create a feeling of dissatisfaction on 
the part of the legislature of Lower Canada, which may se- 
riously impede the successful progress of his mission. As it was 
in your power to have communicated, on his lordship's respon- 
sibility, the statement which he had himself conveyed to the le- 
gislature of the lower province, of the effect of those passages of 
the commissioners' instructions which were appended to your 
own, I do not perceive why you could not have accompanied a 
literal transcript of the body of your instructions with the 
epitome which Lord Gosford had already prepared and used of 
the appendix to them. 

The address of the house of assembly of the 5th of February 
placed you in a position of delicacy, from which you extricated 
yourself with skill, calmness, and discretion. 

I have thus addressed you in that spirit of frankness and un- 
reserve to which I referred in the commencement of this des- 
patch. The respectful expression of such differences of judg- 
ment as may arise between us may, I am convinced, be made 
without hazarding on either side the loss or the diminution of 
that mutual confidence with which it is our duty to co-operate, 



26 

for the advancement of the King^s service and the general wel- 
fare of His Majesty^s subjects. 

I desire to express my approbation of the spirit and manner 
in which you conduct your official intercourse with the house of 
assembly^ — temperate, judicious, and self-possessed; meeting 
their wishes cordially whenever you are able, and when you 
think yourself precluded from so doing, announcing to them 
frankly and courteously, your opinion and determination. 



No. 5,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.CH. 
Sib, Downing-streety 22nd March, 1836. 

I HAVE received your despatch dated the 5th of February, 
No. 4., on the subject of the domestic and pecuniary difficulties 
by which you are encountered in the administration of the 
government of Upper Canada. 

I admit, without reserve, that when I had the honour to signify 
to you His Majesty^s pleasure that this high trust should be 
offered to your acceptance, no political connection or personal 
acquaintance subsisted between us. You were known to me 
only by your '^general reputation, and by the reports of those 
who had enjoyed the opportunity of estimating your qualifi- 
cations for the conduct of public affairs. Having met on these 
terms, I further acknowledge, that in our conversations before 
you quitted England you urgently and repeatedly communi- 
cated to me your apprehension, that in succeeding an officer of 
military rank so much above your own, and in appearing as 
lieutenant-governor of the province, denuded of many of those 
indications of authority which he had borne, you would labour 
under grave disadvantages. Whether you also insisted, on the 
probable inadequacy of your official income to your inevitable 
expenditure, my memory is not equally clear ; but I attach 
greater weight to your recollections than my own of what then 
passed between us, and am willing to consider the subject now, 
on the assumption that before your departure from England this 
difficulty was distinctly foreseen and intimated by you. 

The question respecting a permanent aide-de-camp has, I am 
happy to say, been adjusted according to your wishes and re- 
commendation ; a provision for that charge has been introduced 
into the annual estimate, and has been sanctioned by the house 
of commons. 

The necessity of supplying the deficiency in your military 



27 

rank by some accession to your civil honours^ was brought 
under the consideration of the King on the eve of your de- 
parture for America^ when His Majesty was graciously pleased 
to promote you in the Guelphic order. I would cheerfully refer 
to your own more mature judgment the question^ whether under 
such circumstances^ I could with propriety submit to the King my 
advice to transmit to you a patent for a still higher dignity. 
The value (because the significancy) of such honours depends 
chiefly on the occasion on which they are bestowed, and the 
motives which may appear to have suggested the grant. Having 
proceeded to Upper Canada with one recent mark of His Ma- 
jesty^s favour, if you should receive a second within a few weeks 
from your assumption of the government, so precipitate an 
eagerness to confer rewards, at the very commencement of your 
service, must either appear unaccountable, or if the fact that 
you had been raised to the rank of a baronet on the receipt of 
your first despatches from Upper Canada, in consequence of your 
having discovered and reported that this dingity was necessary 
for the support of your influence there, were publicly avowed, 
the object itseK would be defeated by such an avowal. 

Further, it is not at all evident that the object which you have in 
view would be secured or even promoted by your accession to the 
rank of a baronet. The difficulty with which you have to contend 
is, that although governor of the province, and therefore, elevated 
above every other person there in civil rank, you are yet, in your 
mihtary position, several degrees below many of those with 
whom you are constantly brought into official or personal inter- 
course. Now this difficulty, whatever be its force, would be 
unimpaired, even if your promotion to the baronetage should 
take place. 

For these reasons I have not been able to submit your name 
to the King as an eligible candidate for the dignity of a baronet, 
at the present time ; yet, cautiously guarding myself against 
being supposed to enter into any pledge, direct or indirect, on the 
subject, I readily admit, that it is a reward to which any man 
who should successfuly accomplish the objects of your appoint- 
ment in Upper Canada might properly aspire. 

On the subject of your official income you reason upon princi- 
ples to the truth of which I wilUngly subscribe. I admit that 
your annual receipt ought at the very least to cover your 
annual expenditure, and that the public have not the slightest 



28 

claim to expect the devotion of your private resources to the 
charges of your government. I further acknowledge, that the 
governor of so important a part of His Majesty's dominions must 
incur many expences, which not only do not promote, but which 
may tend greatly to impair his personal comfort and gratification. 
I also allow, that on taking possession of such an office, no man 
can abruptly reduce to any considerable extent, the scale of 
hospitahty and of visible expenditure of his immediate predeces- 
sor, without incurring a loss of influence much more than propor- 
tionate to that reduction. All this being conceded, the inquiry 
is, whether you can properly maintain the expence of the govern- 
ment of Upper Canada on an official income, less than that of Sir 
John Colborne by the amount of the military allowances which 
he received as the chief officer in command of His Majesty's 
forces in the province. The advantages which he derived from 
the command of a regiment must be excluded from consideration : 
they formed an accidental accession to his income, and must be 
regarded as part of his private fortune, and not in any manner 
connected with his government. 

Now, in attempting to determine how for an income of 3,350/. 
per annum is sufficient to provide for your reasonable expenses, 
including amongst them that liberal style of living which your 
station exacts, and which the pubhc have been taught to antici- 
pate, I have no rule for my guidance, except that which I may 
derive from Sir John Colborne's experience, and from your own. 
Earnestly disclaiming the presumption of constituting myself a 
judge of the wisdom of any part of your predecessor's domestic 
arrangements, I am yet compelled, by your reference to them, 
to remark that they seem to have been projected upon a plan 
according rather with the munificence of his disposition than 
with the exigencies of his office. I confess that I doubt whether 
a governor of Upper Canada, could with any justice be expected 
to extend his hospitality, to the numerous travellers attracted 
to the province by curiosity or other motives. Neither am I 
convinced that it could be really necessary or advantageous to 
provide entertainments for every colonist above the rank of a 
retail shopkeeper. Any person placed at the head of the local 
society must have it in his power, to no inconsiderable extent, 
to regulate the prevaihng usages of all the wealthier classes on 
subjects of this kind ; and while he may be justly expected to 
take the lead in placing social intercourse on a liberal and agree- 



29 

able footing, will also be at liberty to inculcate and to recommend 
by his example those simple and prudent habits of life, which to 
a certain extent ought to prevail in every country, where there is 
a constant and increasing demand for the accumulation and 
employment of capital. 

The experiment tried by Sir John Colborne, conducted as it 
was upon so large a scale, does I confess not appear to me con- 
clusive. Your own experience, at the date of your despatch, 
embraced only eleven days, in which it is impossible that many 
hours could have been given to the consideration of any que'fe- 
tions of domestic economy. I am thus without any ground on 
which I could recommend to parliament a grant in aid of your 
provincial income. If I possessed such grounds. His Majesty's 
government would infallibly be met in the house of commons 
by the assertion of the principle, that every colony should 
maintain its own civil government ; a principle which, if it be 
respected in this country on the ground of national economy, is 
yet more justly valued in. the colonies, as a security against the 
interference of parliament with their internal affairs. 

If after a sufficient length of observation it shall be established 
to your satisfaction and my own, that your official income is 
inadequate to the demands to which your office reasonably sub- 
jects you, I shall think it my duty, not for your sake merely, 
but with a view to the permanent interest of the public at large, 
to stipulate for the necessary increase as a part of that civil 
list for which His Majesty^s hereditary revenue is to be 
surrendered. 

Such is the only answer which it is in my power to return to 
your despatch. I cannot suppose that you intended to open 
this discussion by compelling me to elect between the imme- 
diate and unqualified acceptance of all your terms, and the 
immediate acceptance of your resignation. I cannot conceal 
from myself, nor shall I affect to conceal from you, that your 
retirement from the office would be highly inconvenient in its 
direct, and still more in its indirect consequences. In the 
extent of your ability to distress the King's government, and to 
impede His Majesty's service, I find, however, the strongest 
security against your resort to the use of that power. The high 
opinion which I entertain of your character and principles is 
sufficient to prevent my doing you the injustice of beheving 
that at so early a period, and without clear and indisputable 



30 

necessity, you will abandon the important trust so recently 
committed to your charge. You willj, I am convinced, review 
the decision which you have announced, and withhold your 
final determination until you shall have maturely weighed the 
various considerations, of a pubHc as well as a private kind, 
which appear to forbid your retreat from the arduous and there- 
fore honourable station in which it has been His Majesty's 
pleasure to place you ; for myself, at least, I must decline the 
responsibihty of laying your resignation before the King, and of 
concurring in so untimely a change in the administration of 
affairs of the province, until I shall have received your answer 
to this despatch. You must permit me to commend the whole 
subject to your mature and patient reflection ; and to remind 
you, that it is no longer possible for you to consider your 
personal concern in the question, except in its connection with 
national interests of the greatest importance. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 6,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K,C.H. 
Sir, Bowning-street, SOth March, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
despatch of the 23d February, No. 9, announcing that you had 
found it necessary to increase the number of executive council- 
lors of Upper Canada, and that you had accordingly appointed 
to that situation, until His Majesty's pleasure should be known^ 
Messrs. J. H. Dunn, R. Baldwin, and John Rolph. 

I beg to convey to you my approval of this measure, and I 
shall have much satisfaction in recommending to His Majesty 
to confirm the appointment of these gentlemen. I have also to 
express to you my concurrence in the propriety of the course 
which you adopted with reference to the conditions attempted 
to be attached by Mr. Baldwin to his acceptance of the post of 
executive councillor, and I am happy to perceive that Mr. 
Baldwin has not, by persisting in his demands, deprived His 
Majesty's service of the advantage which will, I trust, result 
from his assistance at your councils. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



31 

No. 7.— Lord Glenelg to SirF. B, Head, K.C.H, 
Sib, Downing-street, 3lst May, 1836. 

YotJR despatch of the 6th Aprils announcing that you 
proposed on the 20th of that month to prorogue the legislature 
of Upper Canada^ reached me on the 14th instant. No further 
intelligence has as yet been received at this department from 
the province. 

You will readily understand with how deep an interest, I 
have perused your recapitulation of the events which have 
marked the last session of the legistature of Upper Canada, and 
how anxiously I have expected the arrival of those communica- 
tions which would complete the records of its proceedings up 
to the date of its prorogation. In the absence of intelligence on 
these important points, I feel that it is not possible for me to 
convey to you any definite instructions for your guidance, or even 
to express any decided opinion on the course which you have 
hitherto pursued ;^but nevertheless I cannot allow the present 
opportunity to pass without an acknowledgment of your recent 
despatches, and without assuring you that my colleagues and 
myself are fully alive to the delicacy and difficulties of your 
situation, and are most anxious to relieve you in some degree 
from that undivided weight of responsibihty, which the present 
posture of affairs has unavoidably devolved on you. The trust 
which we repose in your discretion and judgment, diminishes 
the anxiety which we should otherwise feel on this point. In 
whatever circumstances you may be placed, I am confident that 
your measures will continue to be distinguished by a firm, yet 
temperate and concihatory exercise of the constitutional powers 
entrused to you, and that you will by your conduct ensure to 
yourseK the approbation of the well-disposed classes in the 
province, and vindicate His Majesty^s selection of you for the 
important post which you now occupy. 

Whenever your further despatches shall be received His 
Majesty^s government will lose no time in devoting their atten- 
tion to the whole subject of the present state of affairs in Upper 
Canada, and in conveying to you the necessary instructions for 
your guidance. 

I have, &c. 

• (Signed) GLENELG. 



32 

No, S,—Lord Glenelg to Sir R B. Head, K,aH. 
Sir, Downing-street, ISth June, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to inform you, that the petition to the 
house of commons from the assembly of Upper Canada, a copy 
of which you transmitted to me in your despatch of the 21st 
April_, No. 26, was presented to the house by Mr. Hume on 
Friday last, the 10th instant. 

In presenting the petition, Mr. Hume abstained from stating 
its contents or making any observations on its prayer, but he 
announced his intention of moving that it should be printed, 
with a view to its being considered on a futm-e day. 

On the usual motion that the petition should lie on the table 
Sir George Grey, stated, that, owing to the course adopted by 
Mr. Hume, he should also abstain at that time from any general 
observations on the petition, but that, having seen a copy of the 
petition he was aware that it contained a charge affecting your 
personal character, a charge which you had fully and openly 
met in a despatch addressed to me, and that he should there- 
fore feel it to be his duty, should the house order the petition 
to be printed, to move for the production of so much of your 
despatch as related to that charge, in order that your state- 
ment might be before the house at the same time with the 
petition. 

As it is not intended to offer any objection to the petition 
being printed, it is the intention of Sir George Grey to move 
immediately for the production of an extract from your despatch 
of the 21st April, and of the inclosures referred to in that part 
of the despatch, which will be produced, and which wiU be 
printed at the same time with the petition. 

I need scarcely add, that I consider the explanation which 
you have afforded to be a full and complete answer to the 
charge which has been preferred against you. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



iVo. 9,— Lord Glenelg to SirR B,Head, K.CH, 
Sir, Downing-street, 14th June, 1836. 

I AVAIL myself of the earliest opportunity which I have been 
able to find for acknowledging the receipt of the despatches 
enumerated in the margin. 



33 

It must be superfluous to assure you of the deep and lively 
interest with which His Majesty^s government contemplate the 
recent proceedings in Upper Canada^ or to state our conviction 
of the decisive influence which your measures must exercise on 
the affairs of British North America in general. With such views 
of the magnitude of the occasion^ I find it impossible to dis- 
cuss the various questions raised or suggested by the despatches 
before me^ until I shall have been able to bring them fully under 
the notice of my colleagues^ at the same time there are some 
topics which I do not think it right to postpone, and to which 
I shall for the present confine myself. 

It is with equal surprise and concern, that I have read the 
terms in which, in your despatch of the 8th of May, you refer 
to my despatch. No. 40, of the 22nd of March. You observe 
that it is your duty to receive with silent submission all expres- 
sions of my disapprobation, and proceed to defend yourself 
against the charges which you understand me as having intended 
to prefer. I am, however, at once able and happy to say, in 
the most unquaHfied manner, that my despatch of the 22nd of 
March was not written with the design of conveying any reproof, 
or of intimating any disapprobation ; and I am persuaded that 
on referring to it again, you will be satisfied that no room really 
exists for the less favourable construction which you have given 
to my words. Entertaining doubts of the conformity to parha- 
mentary usage of one of your proceedings, and not satisfied as 
to the prudence of another, I expressed my views without the 
shghtest reserve, though not without some uncertainty how far 
they might be well-founded. In thus addressing you, nothing 
could be more remote from my purpose than to censure your 
conduct ; I simply availed myself of that privilege of frank and 
open intercourse, which must subsist between all persons jointly 
engaged in the pursuit of a common political object, and without 
which pubhc affairs could never be conducted with safety or 
success. Ready as I am, at all times, to receive and to invite 
from the governors of His Majesty^s colonies, the expression 
of any dissent from my own judgment, I think myself entitled 
to claim from them an equal freedom in avowing whatever difli- 
culty I may feel respecting any of their measures. It is my 
earnest wish to maintain, with yourseK especially, such habits 
of reciprocal confidence as shall, in our official relation to each 
other, ensure both of us against misconceptions, which might 

D 



34 

be prejudicial to His Majesty's service, and to the general 
interests of the King's subjects. 

Your construction of my despatch, No. 40, has given me the 
greater pain, because to address you in the language of reproof 
was not only remote from my real intention, but in direct con- 
tradiction to it. 

Without anticipating the opinions which I. may hereafter have 
to express respecting your administration of the government of 
Upper Canada, I cannot omit to acknowledge that it has been 
characterized by a zeal for the general good of the province, and 
by an energy, firmness, and promptitude of decision which 
entitle you to the cordial sympathy and grateful acknowledg- 
ments of the ministers of the crown. To be insensible to th 
spirit and the ability with which you have acted, and to give to 
occasional errors of judgment (if errors they really were) more 
attention than to the predominating motives and the broad 
character of your policy, is a reproach to which I cannot admit 
myself justly liable. 

I win not pass over in silence, even on the present occasion, 
your demand for advancement to the dignity of a baronet, even 
though I am unprepared to convey to you my final answer on 
that subject. I trust that you will receive what I am about to 
state as intimating no foregone conclusion on the question, for 
it is in truth, under the peculiar circumstances of the moment, 
a question involving many considerations upon which I must 
necessarily consult with my colleagues in office. 

I must, however, notwithstanding the strength of your expres- 
sions, venture to doubt whether, on more mature reflection, you 
would reaUy think it right to make your continuance in your 
present office dependent on the immediate acquiescence in that 
demand. I do not suggest those considerations which more 
immediately relate to your own personal honour and reputation 
in this matter, because a right to touch on such topics is among 
the privileges only of private and personal intimacy ; but I am 
perhaps at liberty to remind you of the claims, which the King, 
and His Majesty's subjects at large, are entitled to prefer, and 
to which I am convinced that you are keenly alive. It is not less 
true in civil than in military life, that the moment of peril is 
never to a brave and loyal man, the moment of retreat. Of all 
men he is least entitled to retire at such a season, who, in a just 
and fearless reliance on his own resources, has undertaken an 



35 

arduous responsibility which it might be impossible to devolve 
on a successor. He who acts in this spirit may be fairly said 
to have given the most sacred pledge to abide the issue of his 
own undertaking. Nor need I remind you, that no one who in 
that spirit perseveringly and successfully serves the King, on a 
conspicuous theatre of action, can justly doubt that the reward 
of such generous seK-devotion will be dealt out with no niggard 
hand, by his King and country. 

I have but one other topic to notice at present. You demand 
a full and unfettered discretion in the conduct of the affairs in 
which you are engaged, »and deprecate all unnecessary interfer- 
ence. His Majesty^s government, while they respect the inde- 
pendence, subscribe to the justice of this claim. On this sub- 
ject I cannot explain myself more clearly, than by transmitting 
to you the accompanying extracts from a despatch, which on 
the 8th instant I addressed to the Earl of Gosford. You will 
receive them as entirely confidential, but as containing rules for 
your own guidance. 

I trust that my promised communication will not be long 
delayed, but I must guard myself against entering into any 
specific pledge as to the time when I shall be able to transmit 
it to you. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 10.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Bowning-streeti 25th July, 1836. 

In my despatch of the 14th ultimo. No. 64, I acknowledged 
the receipt of various despatches from you, although I stated 
that I was unable to discuss at that time all the questions raised 
or suggested by them. I enumerate in the margin the series of 
despatches to which it is my present purpose to advert, includ- 
ing those referred to in mine of the 14th of June. I would not 
willingly have departed from the rule of official correspondence, 
which requires that a separate answer should be returned to 
each distinct communication ; but the various topics brought 
under my notice in this series of despatches, are so inti- 
mately blended with each other that I find a strict adherence to 
that rule in the present instance impossible. 

1. Of these topics, the first in order of time is the appoint- 
ment of Captain Macaulay to the office of survey or-generaL 

d2 



36 

Your proceedings in regard to the late surveyor-general, Mr. 
Hurd, are entitled to my unqualified approbation ; in calling 
upon that gentleman to resign^ you discharged an invidious 
duty with equal firmness and moderation. I also approve your 
refusal to appoint Mr. Radenhurst as his successor, notwith- 
standing the number and weight of the testimonies in favour 
of that gentleman. I do not inquire whether the charges pre- 
ferred against Mr. Radenhurst, of a breach of trust in the sub- 
ordinate office which he had so long filled, were well founded or 
otherwise, — that inquiry is not necessary to the consideration of 
his claims for advancement, — I must look at him, not in the 
light of a person called upon to exculpate himself from the im- 
putation of a grave offence, but as a candidate for a pubHc trust 
of the highest importance ; and in this view of the matter I 
am bound to decide against his claims, conceiving it to be im- 
possible that he should enjoy public confidence. 

The appointment of Captain Macaulay appears, in so far as 
his personal character and qualifications for the office are con- 
cerned, to have been entirely unexceptionable. But as Captain 
Macaulay deliberately tendered the resignation of that office, 
without any explanation of his motives, but (to quote his own 
language) " on grounds which, as a well-wisher of the govern- 
ment, were with him paramount,^^ I cannot hesitate to accept 
that resignation, and to impose on you the duty of making 
another choice. 

2. The proceedings which led to the resignation of the exe- 
cutive council next demand my attention. In the address of 
the 4th of March from that body to yourself, I understand 
them to maintain, that the constitutional act of 1791^ imposed 
on the governor, the duty of communicating with the council on 
every act of his administration, and required him on every occa- 
sion to abstain from the exercise of his powers until he had first 
weighed and had either adopted or rejected their advice. Their 
address must further be imderstood as an assertion that the 
people at large beheved such to be the system actually observed by 
yourself and your predecessors ; and in the event of your not being 
disposed to adhere to it, the members of the council demanded 
your permission to disabuse the public mind on this subject. 

From the construction thus given to the act of 1791 I must 
altogether dissent ; nor do I know that it would be possible to 
refute it in terms more complete and satisfactory than those 



37 

employed in your answer of the 5th March. I find it more- 
over very difficult to believe that the people of Upper Canada 
at large^ supposed such powers to be habitually and practically 
exercised by the executive council. In so contracted a society 
as that of Toronto it is impossible that the public should not 
have been better informed on a question of such general inter- 
estj and respecting which the means of obtaining correct intelli- 
gence could not have been really wanting. 

Wlien I advert to the length of service of Messrs. Robinson, 
Markland, and Wells in the council, and to their constant acqui- 
essence in the practice which they at length denounced as un- 
constitutional, I have no difficulty in declaring my opinion 
that you judged and acted rightly in calling upon them to resign 
their seats at the council board. You will inform them that 
His Majesty has been pleased to accept their resignations. 

With regard to Messrs. Dunn, Baldwin, and Rolph, 
who had very recently taken their seats at the board, there 
is, I think, room for a much more favourable interpretation of 
the terms of the address of the 4th of March. Differing as I 
do from them as to the construction of the act of 1791, and 
doubting the prevalence of the opinion which they requested 
permission to contradict, I am yet willing to beheve that 
they signed the address under the influence of no motives but 
such as might have been reconciled with their duty to 
the crown, and with their cordial co-operation with yourself in 
the proper business of the executive council. Some indulgence 
may perhaps have been due to the novelty of the situation in 
which they found themselves placed, and to distrusts which a 
more intimate acquaintance with you, might perhaps, have 
promptly dispelled. I admit, however, unreservedly, that so 
long as they continued to assert the right of intervention, in 
every act of the executive government, it was impossible that 
you should receive them as members of your council. Messrs. 
Baldwin and Rolph having adhered to that demand, your breach 
with them was unavoidable. Mr. Dunn having offered to re- 
cede from it, a distinction, as it seems to me, might have been 
made in his favour. 

You took, indeed, an objection to the address of the 4th 
March, which, if well-founded, certainly left no possibility of 
separating the case of any one member from that of his asso- 
ciates. Your answer represents that address as asserting the 



38 

principle^ that the members of the executive council are to be 
responsible, not to the King or to His Majesty's representative 
in the province^, but to the people, or to the popular branch of 
the legislature. Whether a latent meaning of this kind may 
really have been entertained in any quarter, it is not for me to 
decide; no such pretension, however, appears to have been 
distinctly avowed by the members of the council themselves. 
When I advert to the state of pubHc affairs in the province, at 
the period in question, I cannot but admit that you had pro- 
bable grounds for assuming that the construction which you 
placed on the address of the 4th of March, was not, in fact, at 
variance with the meaning and purpose of the authors of that 
document. StiU I am not satisfied that it was judicious to 
ascribe to their language an offensive sense of which it is not 
necessarily or properly susceptible ; it strikes me, on the con- 
trary, that a needless disadvantage was incurred by thus pre- 
ferring a charge to which the accused parties might assert that 
they had not rendered themselves Hable. 

3. From a consideration of your proceedings regarding the 
executive council, I naturally advance to a still more important 
subject. 

After reviewing the conduct of the house of assembly from 
the time of the resignation of the six members of the council, 
to the close of the session, and after considering the language 
of the house and of its committee, on the topics at issue, 
between you and the councillors, I must own myself at a loss 
to determine what is the precise principle on which, as to the 
question of responsibility, the majority of the house were finally 
prepared to take their stand. The language of the house, 
indeed, in its addresses and resolutions, would embrace that 
principle in its utmost latitude ; so also in the report of the 
committee, there are some passages which appear to maintain 
that doctrine in the largest sense in which it has ever been put 
forward in any of the colonies, namely, that as in this kingdom 
the King acts on the advice of responsible ministers, so in the 
Canadas the governor is to act on the advice of a responsible 
council. There are again other passages in the report, which 
present the principle in a more modified character, limiting it 
to the obligation imposed on the lieutenant-governor to consult 
the executive council on all public questions, although at the 
same time admitting his freedom to act in opposition to their 



39 

advice. But, in order to judge of the propriety of your pro- 
ceedings, it is quite unnecessary to inquire what may have been 
precisely the views of the house of assembly. Whatever may 
have been their meaning, the course of conduct which they 
adopted, and the position which they assumed, seem to me to 
have made a rupture with that body unavoidable. Let it be 
assumed that the principle for which they desired to contend, 
was by them taken in the more moderate of the two senses 
already stated, and let it be admitted further, which certainly I 
am by no means prepared to admit, that this principle is calcu- 
lated to advance the well-being of the province, still, as no such 
principle can be recognized, either as incorporated in the text 
or exemplified in the practice of the provincial constitution, the 
house was surely not entitled to adopt the extreme measure of 
stopping the supplies on this occasion. Much indeed is it to 
be regretted that this great constitutional resource was resorted 
to for the purpose of attempting" to enforce changes in the 
system of government itself, changes, more especially, which 
neither His Majesty's representative in the province, nor his 
subordinate officers, have power to introduce. Under these cir- 
cumstances, and with the strong conviction which you enter- 
tained as to the general dissatisfaction of the inhabitants with 
the conduct of their representatives, I approve your prorogation 
and subsequent dissolution of the assembly. 

4. The house has ascribed to you, a wilful departure from 
truth, on the subject of Mr. Sullivan^s contingent accession to 
the government of Upper Canada. On this point, I have 
already expressed to you my opinion that your defence is satis- 
factory and conclusive. 

5. With respect to the reservation of the money bills for the 
signification of His Majesty's pleasure, and the refusal of the 
contingencies of the house, although I am of opinion that such 
measures ought not to be resorted to except on grounds of the 
most cogent necessity, I am disposed, with the information 
which I at present possess, to think that, committed as you 
were to a great contest, and encountered by an unreasonable 
employment of weapons, reserved only for extreme emergencies, 
you were justified in summoning to your aid all the powers 
which the constitution has in store for such a crisis. 

6. I now proceed to your recommendation that Mr. Dunn 
should be removed from the office of receiver-general. Dis- 



40 

posed as I am at all times to accede to your wishes, I must own 
myself unable to comply with the present suggestion. I have 
already said that I distinguish favorably Mr. Dunnes conduct 
from that of his fellow councillors. He is chargeable neither 
with the inconsistency of Messrs. Robinson, Markland, and 
Wells, nor with the peremptory adherence of Messrs. Baldwin 
and Rolph, to the demands made in the letter of the 4th of 
March. Widely as I differ from Mr. Dunn in his construction 
of the act of 1791^ I do not presume to censure his frank and 
firm assertion of an opposite judgment, which, when apprized 
of your dissent, he expressed his readiness not to urge to any 
practical consequence inconsistent with the faithful discharge of 
his duty. The only other error attributed to him is that of 
having written in the ordinary language of courtesy respecting a 
proceeding of the house of assembly — a proceeding to which he 
lent no aid or countenance, and of which indeed he had never 
heard until it was officially made known to him. So far am I 
from reprobating Mr. Dunnes adherence to the conventional 
language of respect, in alluding to any act of the representatives 
of the Canadian people, that I should have been ready to con- 
demn as unprofitable, and as injurious to the cause of good 
government, the employment of a less measured and ceremo- 
nious style. 

7. On referring to the addresses from yourself to public 
bodies in the province, which accompany your despatches, I 
feel pleasure in doing justice to the ability, decision, and ardent 
zeal for His Majesty's service by which they are in. general 
characterised, and to the soundness of many of the principles 
which they assert and vindicate. But I am compelled to ex- 
press, however reluctantly, a wish that some of the expressions 
contained in them had been more carefully weighed, and that 
you had more studiously maintained the temperate forbearance 
and reserve, by which such compositions are usually dis- 
tinguished, and by which alone, they can be effectually recom- 
mended to the respectful and dispassionate attention of society 
at large. 

8. Your despatch of the 1st of June, No. 41, tenders the 
resignation of your office, on the ground '^ that you do not agree 
in opinion with the commissioners of inquiry in Lower Canada,^^ 
and that, " as regards their policy, you have not an idea in 
common with them,^^ and because " their policy has a demo- 



41 

cratic character, to which you cannot justly conform/^ To 
these general remarks you proceed to add censures, of no 
ordinary severity, of a particular act of Lord Gosford^s adminis- 
tration, viz. the promotion of M. Bedard. Respecting M. Be- 
dard's preferment, it may be sufficient to observe, that you are 
very imperfectly acquainted with the circumstances of the case, 
and with the motives which influenced Lord Gosford^s conduct. 
On much more ample information His Majesty has been 
graciously pleased to approve and confirm that choice. 

Your remarks respecting the reports of the commissioners 
are, I must be permitted to think, premature, as His Majesty's 
decision upon those reports is not yet known. I shall not enter 
into any explanation of the opinions which I entertain in re- 
gard to the ^questions discussed by the Canada commissioners, 
nor can I advise His Majesty to accept your resignation on the 
ground on which it is thus placed. 

In my despatch which accompanied your commission, I have 
attempted to lay down, with the utmost possible precision, the 
principles on which His Majesty expects and requires you to 
act. Those instructions I see no reason to depart from or to 
quahfy. I trust that you will steadily adhere to them as the 
rule and guide of your conduct, even when they may coincide 
with the reports of which you have pronounced so unqualified a 
condemnation. If, indeed, I were to understand your tendered 
resignation as declaratory of any purpose to administer the 
government of Upper Canada in opposition to the principles 
recorded in those instructions, then, whatever pain and regret 
it might cost me, I should certainly feel myself bound in good 
faith and consistency to advise His Majesty to accept your 
offer ; but, without an evident necessity, I wiU not so construe 
your expressions, nor permit myself to doubt that you are 
resolved, under all circumstances, to conduct the government 
of Upper Canada in no other spirit and no other principles, 
than those which pervade your original instructions. His Ma- 
jesty's government look to no transient results or temporary 
triumphs ; they seek to allay public discontents, and to promote 
the general good of the people, by a resolute adherence, under 
every change of accidental circumstances, to what they must 
esteem as sacred and immutable rules of British North American 
policy, — rules which will rather gain than lose in importance, if, 
as I trust, a period is approaching at which the affairs of Upper 



42 

Canada may be adjusted, with an assembly prepared to regard 
the maintenance of the constitutional rights of the other 
branches of the legislature, as essential to the preservation of its 
own legitimate authority and privileges. 

9. On the subject of your claim to be advanced to the 
dignity of a baronet, I refer you to my despatch of the 14th 
June, No. 64, as containing the final decision of His Majesty's 
government. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, U.'-Lord Glenelgto Sir F, B. Head, K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 2bth July, 1836. 

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 
21st March, No. 17, notifying your appointment of Messrs. 
Sullivan, Elmsley, Baldwin, and Allen, to the executive council 
of Upper Canada, I have submitted the names of these gentle- 
men to His Majesty in council, and I trust that by the next 
opportunity I shall have it in my power to convey to you 
His Majesty's decision thereon. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 12.— Lord Glenelg to SirF. B.Head,K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 25th July, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to inform you that I have received from 
Mr. Bidwell a letter, dated the 25th April last, containing some 
observations on your administration of the government of 
Upper Canada, and more particularly referring to communica- 
tions which he states to have passed between you and himself. 
You are aware that the rules which, upon pubhc grounds, have 
been established in regard to correspondence with this depart- 
ment, preclude me from receiving any communications from 
the colonies involving matters of provincial interest, except 
through the governor of the colony in which the writer may 
be settled. It is unnecessary to say, that in the present instance 
I cannot depart from that rule ; still less can I entertain state- 
ments inculpating the governor of a colony, unless that officer 
shall have had the most ample opportunity of answering them. 

I have therefore not felt myself at liberty to take Mr. Bid- 
well's letter into consideration until you shall have had an 



43 

opportunity of offering in regard to it any remarks which you 
may consider necessary. For this purpose I request that you 
will apply to Mr. Bidwell for a copy of that letter. 

In addressing to you my acknowledgment of Mr. Bidwell^s 
letter^ that gentleman will understand that I mean no personal 
discourtesy toward him^ but that I act according to a rule which 
has been invariably applied to all similar cases. 

You will communicate a copy of this despatch to Mr. Bidwell. 
I have^ &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, IS,— Lord Glenelg to S ir F, B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 15th July, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to inform you, that I have received from 
Mr. Rolph a letter containing a statement of the circumstances 
which led to the resignation of the late executive council of Upper 
Canada, and commenting at considerable length on your conduct, 
and on that of the other parties concerned in that transaction. 
You are aware that the rules which, upon public grounds, have 
been established in regard to correspondence with this depart- 
ment, preclude me from receiving any communications from the 
colonies involving matters of provincial interest, except through 
the governor of the colony in which the w^riter may be settled. 
It is unnecessary to say, that in the present instance I cannot 
depart from that rule ; still less can I entertain statements 
inculpating the governor of a colony, unless that officer shall 
have had the most ample opportunity of answering them; I 
have therefore to request that you will apply to Dr. Rolph, for 
a copy of his letter to me of the 27th April, in order that you 
may furnish me with any remarks which may appear to you to 
be called for, by the statements contained in it. 

In addressing to you my acknowledgment of Mr. Rolph^s letter, 
that gentleman will understand that I mean no personal dis- 
courtesy towards him, but that I act according to a rule which 
has been invariably applied to aU. similar cases. 

You will communicate this despatch to Mr. Rolph. 
I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. U.—Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B, Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 25th July, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to inform you that I have received from 



44 

Mr. T. D. Morrison a letter^ dated Toronto, 29th April, 1836, im- 
puting to you a misquotation from the report of the committee 
of 1835, on public grievances, in your speech at the close of the 
late session of the provincial legislature. I have to request, 
according to the usual course in the case of such representations 
being addressed to me, that you will call on Mr. Morrison for 
copy of his letter to me, in order that you may be able to 
supply me with any observations on it, which you may consider 
it to require. 

In addressing to you my acknowledgment of Mr. Morrison^s 
letter, that gentleman will understand that I mean no personal 
discourtesy towards him, but that I act according to a rule 
which has been invariably applied to all similar cases. 

You wiU communicate this despatch to Mr. Morrison. 
I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 15,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing- street, ^OthJuly, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith the copy of 
a letter which has been addressed to me by Mr. R. Baldwin, 
relative to certain recent proceedings in Upper Canada ; and 
I am to request that you will favour me with any observations 
on the subjects noticed by Mr. Baldwin which may appear to 
you necessary for my information. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



Inclosure in No. 15. 
My Lord, 4, Trinity Court, Charing Cross, 2QthJuly, 1836. 

I TAKE the liberty of inclosing to your lordship a Toronto 
newspaper of the 22d ult. and of drawing your lordship^s atten- 
tion to the resolutions of the constitutional reform society on the 
subject of the appointments of places for holding the elections 
as well as the appointment of Mr. Kerr as one of the returning- 
officers. It is for your lordship to judge whether the course 
adopted by Sir Francis Head in these particulars is that which 
would have been pursued had it been really his desire to obtain 
the calm and deliberate opinion of the country. 

I also beg to refer your lordship to the reply of Sir Francis 
Head to the address presented to him on the subject of the 



45 

foreign interference to which he had alluded in one of his pre- 
ceding replies. I learn by my private letters^ that in conse- 
quence of his Excellency refusing all satisfaction as to whence 
he had derived his information on the subject, a letter was 
addressed to the authorities of the neighbouring state of New 
York; and I subjoin an extract which has been sent me from 
the answer of the secretary of state of that republic, which will 
show your lordship the light in which strangers view the con- 
duct of the lieutenant-governor in spreading an alarm on the 
subject of foreign intervention. 

I have also taken the liberty of marking for your lordship's 
consideration the account of the tunes which, as a sort of prac- 
tical commentary on the reply of the lieutenant-governor to the 
house of assembly last winter on the subject of orange societies, 
are in requisition at the piiblic dinners of his Excellency's 
artisans. 

In one of the letters which I have received from Toronto my 
correspondent writes, that he dreads that the consequence 
of the conduct of the government will be the agitation of 
independence, or at least elective governors as well as council. 
In another the writer says, he cannot venture to tell me all that 
he hears of the unworthy contrivances of the tory party to anti- 
cipate votes, that it is still muttered amongst them, the use of 
location tickets, and he fears they will dare to do so ; if so, that 
it will hasten more rapidly the conviction of the people, that 
they must separate from England. He remarks, that the 
use of location tickets at once nullifies the freeholders through- 
out the province, and the men returned to the assembly must be 
the representatives of the tenants at will of the cro^vn, and not 
of the freeholders of the province ; and adds, ^^ you know the 
people mU not long bear this." 

These are the observations of gentlemen whom I know to be 
warmly attached to the preserv^ation of the connection between 
the two countries, and to monarchical institutions. It is true 
they wTite from a scene of much violence and excitement ; but 
making every possible allowance on that ground, when such 
conclusions are forced upon the minds of such men, there can 
be but little doubt that there is much to alarm even the most 
indifferent. 

I make these statements to your lordship, because I foresee 
that if Sir Francis Head is continued in the government of 



46 

Upper Canada, and the same fatal system pursued in the admi- 
nistration of its affairs, separation from the mother country is 
inevitable, and I am most desirous that when that event takes 
place, I at least may feel fully acquitted of having omitted any 
thing which might, by placing before your lordship the real state 
of the country, have led to a more happy result. 
Right Honourable Lord Glenelg, I have, &c. 

&c. &c. &c. HOBERT BALDWIN. 



At a meeting of the constitutional reform society of Upper 
Canada, on Friday the 10th June, W. W. Baldwin, Esquire, 
in the chair, the following resolutions were unanimously 
adopted : — 

1st, That it is currently reported that the executive of the pro- 
vince have fixed upon the following places in their respective 
counties for holding the ensuing elections ; viz. 
Nelson in the Co. Halton. 
Kingston in the Co. Frontenac. 
Beverly in the Co. Leeds. 
That a gentleman was deputed by the electors of the county 
of Halton to solicit his Excellency to alter the place for holding 
the election in that county, on the ground that it is at the extreme 
boundary of the county, close to the residence of Mr. Chishohn, 
one of the tory candidates, and at a distance of thirty or forty 
miles from the most populous townships in the county ; that 
his Excellency admitted that the place fixed on was improper, 
and also admitted that he had received many similar complaints 
from other places, and gave that as a reason why he could not 
alter the place of election in one instance, as he would have to 
do so in others. 

2nd, That it is the first time for many years past that the town 
of Kingston has been named as the place for holding the elec- 
tion for the county of Frontenac, and this meeting cannot help 
fearing that it has been fixed on with a view of overawing, by 
means of a tory mob, the independent yeomanry of the county. 
3rd, That it is with still deeper regret that this meeting finds 
that it is currently reported that Beverly, in the county of Leeds, 
has been fixed on for holding the election for that county, it having 
been the place where at two successive elections the freeholders 
of the county were driven from the hustings by a body of armed 
partisans, and two individuals returned as representatives by 



47 

violence, who when a fair election was obtained were left in a 
considerable minority. 

4th, That this meeting is constrained solemnly and delibe- 
rately to record its opinion, that if violence and bloodshed ensue 
at the elections in the before- mentioned counties, the person 
administering the government of this province must be respon- 
sible for the consequences, more particularly as the returning- 
officer in one of these counties is an individual who has been 
convicted by a jury of his country of a most unprovoked and 
wanton assault on that sterling reformer W. L. Mackenzie, 
Esquire. 

(Signed) W. W. BALDWIN. 

Chairman, 



To His Excellency Sir F, B. Head, ^c. &^c. 
May it please Your Excellency, 

We, the undersigned electors of the city of Toronto, have 
read in your Excellency's answer to the address of certain elec- 
tors of the home district the following language : — ^^ They (the 
people of Toronto) are perfectly aware that there exist in the 
lower province one or two individuals who inculcate the idea 
that this province is about to be disturbed by the interference of 
foreigners, whose power and whose numbers will prove invin- 
cible. In the name of every regiment of militia in Upper Canada 
I publicly promulgate, ^ let them come if they dare,' ^' We do 
not doubt the readiness with which would J^be answered upon 
any emergency your appeal to the militia, which appeal we are 
satisfied would not have been made without adequate cause. 
In a matter so seriously affecting the peace and tranquillity of 
the country, and the security of its commerce, we beg to 
learn from your Excellency from what quarter the invasion 
is alleged to be threatened. 

The above was presented on Saturday the 11th instant at 
two o'clock. 

Deputation. — Messrs. Hincks, Dr. Tims, Doel, Alexander, 
Beattie, Wm. Lesslie, J. Anderson. 



Governor's Answer, 
Gentlemen, — The idea which is inculcated by one or two 
individuals in the Lower Province, ^^ that this province is about 
to be disturbed by the interference of foreigners," is too noto- 



48 

rious to be denied/ and I have therefore no further observations 
to make to you on this subject. 



The Hamilton Gazette contains the account of a dinner at 
Springfield^ attended by Mr. E.W.Thomson and other opponents 
of Mr. Mackenzie^ where the tunes were^ ^^ the Boyne Water/^ 
^^ Protestant Boys/^ and " Croppies He down.^^ These party 
roceedings lead to unhappy differences, and had better be 
avoided. 



Copy of the Extract referred to in the foregoing Letter, 
The answer of your lieutenant-governor, dated the 28th ult., 
to the address of the electors of the home district, was received 
here and in Albany with equal surprise and regret. The state 
of New York is not directly referred to; but our local position 
in relation to Upper Canada is such, that we are almost con- 
strained to believe that our own citizens are intended by the 
designation of *^^ foreigners,^^ whose interference is deprecated. 

I gave a copy of address to Governor Marcy, and he would 
not hesitate to notice it officially, if under the circumstances he 
could do so with propriety, but he does not perceive that he can. 
I am however authorized by him to say, that he does believe not 
a single citizen of this state entertains the design of interfering 
in any manner with the political affairs of Canada, nor has he 
ever heard such a design imputed to any individual. If your 
lieutenant-governor had thought proper to communicate to the 
executive of this state the grounds on which the intimation 
referred to was thrown out, a course which certainly seems due 
to the friendly understanding subsisting between us, it is believed 
that all cause for suspicion would have been removed, so far as 
the citizens of this state are concerned. As it is, we cannot but 
think that great injustice has been done to us, by ascribing to 
any of our citizens criminal designs of which they are innocent, 
and to the people of Canada, by exciting distrust and alarm for 
which there is no shadow of foundation. You may rest assured, 
that the universal desire of the people of this state, and of our 
sister states, is to maintain'unimpaired the relations of friend- 
ship which happily exist between the United States and Great 
Britain ; and that the authority of this state and of the union, 
would be promptly interposed to put down any attempt on the 
part of those, subjects to their respective jurisdictions, to interfere 



49 

with the pohtical concerns of Canada, or any of the British 
dominions. It is no more than just to the citizens of the 
United States to add, that a recent instance of magnanimity on 
the part of Great Britain has strengthened the desire to 
which I have referred ; and I am sure that the moral sense of 
our whole community would revolt at the idea of repaying that 
act of friendship with bad faith, v/hich your lieutenant-governor^ 
as we suppose, intended to attribute to some of us. 



No. 16,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 20th August, 1836. 

With a view to prevent any misapprehension as to the 
nature of the communications, which, since his arrival in this 
country, have been addressed to me by Mr. Baldwin, I have 
the honour to inclose herewith, for your information, copies of 
all the correspondence which has passed between that gentleman 
and this department. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



My L0RD3 Trinity Court, Charing Cross, 20th June, 1836. 

Although not the agent for the petition from the house of 
assembly of Upper Canada, lately presented to the house o£ 
commons by Mr, Hume, I take the liberty of most respectfully 
requesting permission to state fully to your lordship, personally^ 
the particulars of the late political transactions in that province, 
as far as I have myself been connected with them, and the 
principles by which I was governed in adopting the course 
which I felt it my duty to take on that occasion ; and also of 
laying before your lordship fully and frankly my view of the 
present state of the province, with reference to the great ques- 
tion now at issue between the heutenant-govei^nor and the 
house of assembly ; and respectfully submitting what appears to 
me to be the only possible means of preserving the connection 
with the mother country^ which, permit me most solemnly to 
assure your lordship, I am most sincerely anxious td 
perpetuate* 

I would take the liberty of calling your lordship's attention 
to the two following facts, already before your lordship in the 
documents transmitted from Upper Canada ; first, that it was ^t 
the earnest sohcitation of the lieutenant-governor himself, after 

E 



50 

a' full and frank explanation of my views and principles^ that I 
was most reluctantly induced to accept a seat in the late executive 
council^ and that I was afterwards compelled to resign the place 
thus pressed upon me by having been called upon by his Excel- 
lency to abandon those principles or retire from his confidence ; 
and, secondly, that for joining, together w^th my colleagues, in 
a respectful and confidential representation to his Excellency, 
recommending what his Excellency, previous to sohciting me to 
take office, knew me to consider absolutely necessar}^ to the 
success of his government, I and my late colleagues, most of 
them serv^ants of the crown of long standing, have been de- 
nounced by his Excellency, in his speech from the throne, as 
" having officially combined together in an unprecedented en- 
deavour to assume ^^ what his Excellency considers his 
responsibility. 

I feel assured that, when your lordship calls these circumstances 
to mind, and, above all, considers that ^^the present,^^ to user 
the terms of your lordship's despatch to Sir F. Head, ^'^is an era 
of more difficulty and importance than any which has hitherto 
occurred in the history of that part of His Majesty's domin- 
ions,'^ and that it is at least possible that your lordship may 
be better able to come to a satisfactory conclusion upon the 
subject, after having it explained by one who was considered by 
the lieutenant-governor himself as capable of being, in some 
degree at least, useful to His Majesty's government in the 
administration of the affairs of the province, and who, moreover, 
was himself, in part an actor in the very affairs upon which your 
lordship is called upon to decide ; your lordship cannot justly 
consider as unreasonable the request which I now make for the 
honour of personally communicating with you on a subject so 
important to myself personally, and to the best interests of my 
native province. 

I have, &Co 

(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 
The Right Hon. Lord Glenelg, 
&c. &c. &c. 



Sir, Downing -street^ 2Sih June, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to ackno^vledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 20th instant, transmitted to him by Mr. Hume, 
requesting that his lordship would afford you an opportunity of 



stating to him personally the particulars of the late political 
transactions in the province of Upper Canada^ in so far as you 
have been connected with them. In reply Lord Glenelg desires 
to observe^ that he is solicitous at all times to receive the fullest 
information from every quarter relating to the interests of the 
British colonies^ and at the present time more especia]ly_, rela- 
ting to Upper Canada, and the events which have recently 
taken place in that province. His lordship, however, while he 
accepts with thankfulness your offer to make some communica- 
tions to him on that subject, is yet inclined to think that, under 
existing circumstances, it would be more advisable that such 
communications should be made in writing than in conversation. 
He requests therefore that you will be so good as to favour liimj 
in writing, with such intelligence and observations as you may 
think of importance to bring under the consideration of 
government. 

I have, &c. 
Robert Baldivin, Esq, (Signed) J. STEPHEN. 

&c. &c. &c. 



My Lord, 4, Trinity-court, Chartng-crGss, ISth July, 1836. 

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from Mr. 
Stephen, in reply to mine of the 20th ultimo, requesting 
the honour of an interview with your lordship on the public and 
private grounds referred to in my former letter. 

As your lordship does not deem it advisable to accede to my 
request for a personal intervievv^, I will not trespass on your 
lordship^s time by any further reference to myself, or the injus- 
tice of which I, and indeed all my late colleagues, have reason 
to complain, of ha\'ing received at the hands of the lieutenant- 
governor. More than enough is already before your lordship 
to place this in a very strong light. Your lordship, I feel as- 
sured, cannot approve of the conduct of Sir Francis Head, 
however necessary you may imagine it to be not publicly to con- 
demn it ; and I can personally have no desire to pursue the 
subject. I will only take the liberty of assuring your lordship, 
that, as it was no desire of place that induced me to accept the 
seat pressed upon me by Sir Francis Head, nothing but a desire 
of justifying myself to the government under which I was born, 
and to which I am both by duty and affection still most warmly 
attached, could, as far as I am myself personally concerned, 



liave induced me to trespass on your lordship by the request. I 
shall take it for granted^ however^ that your lordship will do us 
the justice to point out any particulars in our conduct on the 
late occasion which in your estimation may appear culpable, or 
such as to call for further explanation. 

But, my lord, I am deeply impressed with the responsibility 
which the present state of Upper Canada necessarily throws 
upon every man connected with it. As my native country, its 
prosperity is necessarily to me an object of the most intense 
anxiety. Educated in the warmest attachment to the monar- 
chical form of government, believing it to be the best adapted to 
secure the happiness of the people, and fully sensible that it can 
be maintained in Upper Canada only by means of the con- 
nection with the mother country, I have always been most 
earnestly anxious for the continuation of that connection ; I 
believe it to be now endangered ; I sincerely believe the crisis 
to have arrived which is to decide the ultimate destiny of Upper 
Canada, as a dependency of the British crown. I feel therefore 
that it would be criminal in me to refuse compliance with your 
lordship^s request, to communicate with you in writing on the 
subject of the present state of that province, and the events 
which have recently taken place there. At the same time, I 
cannot but feel that, although there may be some advantage in 
this mode of communication, where principles are merely to be 
laid down, they are more than counterbalanced by the disad- 
vantages attendant upon it where principles are not only to be 
laid down but discussed, and the details connected with them, 
and the political situation of a country in a state of high and 
dangerous excitement, enlarged upon and disposed of. 

I shall, however, as clearly as I can, state to your lordship my 
view of the present state of the province with reference to the 
principle contended for in the recent memorial from the house 
of assembly to the imperial house of commons, and the value 
and importance of that principle in producing harmony among 
the several branches of the provincial legislature, and inspiring 
the people with confidence in the home and provincial govern- 
ments ; and will conclude with most respectfully submitting my 
opinion as to the course which, with all deference for the opi- 
nions of others, it appears to me to be absolutely necessary 
should be promptly taken for preserving the connection of that 
colony with the mother country. 



53 

If it is the desire of the mother country^ which I of course 
assume it to be^ to retain the colony^ it can only be done either 
by force or with the consent of the people of Upper Canada 
themselves. I take it for granted that Great Britain cannot 
desire to exercise a government of the sword^ and that she will 
therefore only govern the Canadas so long as she can do so 
with the concurrence of the people. For the purpose, there- 
fore, of continuing the connection upon this footing, it is abso- 
lutely necessary, first, that thepolitical machinery of the provincial 
government should be such as shall work harmoniously within 
itself, without collision between any of its great wheels ; and, 
secondly, that it should be such as that the people may feel 
that they have an influence upon it sufficiently powerful to se- 
cure attention, not only to their abstract rights, but to their 
feelings and prejudices ; without regard to these, you can go- 
vern no people satisfactorily or successfully. 

That the constitution of Upper Canada, administered upon 
the principles heretofore applied to it, has failed to accomplish 
either of these objects, a very cursory view of the history of the 
colony, without reference to the admission contained in one of 
your lordship's late despatches, will sufficiently demonstrate. 
It may, however, be w^ell to state, that the differences alluded to 
are of a much earlier date than appears to be generally known in 
this country, or, until lately, to have been recollected even in the 
department over which your lordship presides. As early as in 
the provincial parliament of 1820, an opposition, respectable, if 
not formidable, both in talent and numbers, existed ; some of 
the leading members of which not only expressed their entire 
want of confidence in the provincial executive, but adopted the 
principle now contended for as a part of their political creed, and 
aasumed it as necessarily pertaining as much to the provincial 
constitution as to that of the mother country. During the 
whole of that parliament the opposition were generally in a 
minority. In the parliament of 1824, and in that of 1828, the 
executive were uniformly in an inconsiderable minority. In 
that of 1830, owing to circumstances to which it is not worth 
while now to allude, the executive obtained a majority ; but in 
that of 1834 they were again in a minority. So that, taking the 
twelve years from 1824 to 1836, the provincial executive have 
been in the minority for eight years and three parliaments, and 
have nad a majority only for four years an done parliament. During 



54 

the whole of this time also the house of assembly were constantly 
passing bills which the legislative council as uniformly threw out* 

As^ therefore^ the present constitution^ administeredup on the 
principles heretofore applied to it^ has failed in both particulars, 
I mean in working smoothly itself or satisfying the people, it 
necessarily follows that something must be done to accomplish 
the objects desired. To this end four remedies have been 
proposed : — First, to make the legislative council elective ; 
secondly, to abolish it; thirdly, to concede certain isolated 
points which have been earnestly called for by the representatives 
of the people ; and, fourthly, to put the executive council 
permanently upon the footing of a local provincial cabinet, 
holding the same relative position with reference to the repre- 
sentative of the King and the provincial parhament, as that on 
which the King^s imperial cabinet stands with respect to the 
King and the parliament of the empire, and applying to such 
provincial cabinet, both with respect to their appointment to and 
continuance in office, the same principles as those wiiich are 
acted upon by His Majesty with respect to his imperial cabinet 
in this country. 

The two first remedies, if not inexpedient, I look upon as at 
least wholly insufficient of themselves to accomplish the objects 
desired ; the third as equally insufficient of itseK to do so ; and 
the last as the only remedy by the application of which those 
objects can be attained, and Upper Canada preserved to the 
mother countr}^ 

First. The making the legislative council elective I look upon 
as inexpedient ; among other reasons, because I am of opinion 
that the institutions of every colony ought, as nearly as possible, 
to correspond with those of the mother country. The upper 
house of the imperial parliament not being elective, I would 
therefore not have the upper house of the provincial parliament 
elective, unless under the pressure of an absolute necessity. I 
moreover disapprove of the adoption of such a measure, at all 
events at present, because it is, as a general principle, inex- 
pedient to make an alteration in the form of the constitution of 
any country, until the necessity for such change has been 
demonstrated by putting into full and efficient operation the 
existing constitution in all its details, which cannot be said to 
have been done with that of Upper Canada, until the executive 
.council is practically converted into a provincial cabinet for the 



55 

k)cal and internal affairs of the province. Had this been done 
ten or twelve years ago, when the executive first found them- 
selves in a decided and uniform minority in the provincial 
parliament, I am satisfied that an elective legislative council 
would not now have been thought of. And I am not without 
hopes, although they may prove fallacious, that it is not yet too 
late, by the adoption of this principle, to render such change 
in the constitution unnecessary ; but at all events, as a remedy 
amounting merely to the application of an English principle to. 
the constitution as it stands, it ought yet to be tried fully and 
fairly, previous to resorting to the more violent measure of a legis- 
lative change in the charter. It is but right, however, to inform 
your lordship, that although my opinion of the inexpediency 
of such a change in the organization of the legislative council is 
concurred in by many, I believe a considerable majority of the 
reformers of the province (which every day^s delay is increasing) 
think that such change will ultimately be found necessary. After 
the intimation contained in your lordship's despatch, and out of 
regard to the opinions entertained by us, w^ho on this point 
differed from them, they were, however, wiUing to drop the 
question of an elective legislative council, until the constitution, 
as it is should have been fully and fairly tested by the application 
of those principles which have been found so valuable and neces- 
sary in the successful working of that of the mother country; and 
whatever may be the opinion entertained, as to the expediency 
or inexpediency of making the legislative council elective, I 
believe none exists as to such change being found wholly insuffi- 
cient of itself to accomplish the two objects desired. The making 
the legislative council elective might convert that body into an 
additional engine of hostility against the executive government, 
but could never supersede the necessity for the concession of 
the principle contended for ; resistance to the concession of this 
principle may drive the reformers into unanimity in the call for an 
elective legislative council, but it will only be as a means, and 
not as an end ; and when that state of things arrives, be assured 
England will have lost her last hold upon the affections of the 
great mass of the people of Upper Canada. That such change 
in the constitution of the legislative council would not be found 
to produce harmony between the three branches of the provincial 
government will readily be admitted, when it is remembered that 
the colhsion which has produced so much evil has not been merely' 



56 

between the representative branch of the government and the 
legislative council^ but between the representative branch and 
the executive government. The complaint has always been of 
the influence of the executive upon the legislative council^ and 
not of the influence of the legislative council upon the executive 
government. It were idle^ therefore,, to expect unanimity while 
you have untouched the main source of discord. 

Secondly. To the proposal to abolish the legislative council^ 
although most of the reasons against making it elective will equally 
apply^ it may^ in addition^ be urged that a second chamber of 
some kind has^ at least in modern constitutional legislation, been 
deemed essential to good government. It has not been dis- 
pensed with in any of the new constitutions of any of the neigh- 
bouring republics ; and has^ in more inst^ces than one, been 
not long since adopted as an improvement to the political 
machinery of government, where the previous constitution had 
contained no such provision ; and, moreover, the abolition of 
the legislative council has not been asked fpr by any portion of 
the Canadian people. 

And as to the third remedy proposed, that of conceding certain 
isolated points as they arise and are called for, I will only say 
that the whole history, not only of the Canadas, but of the 
colonies in general, shows that such course, as a means of pro- 
ducing permanent satisfaction and harmony, has wholly failed. 
Nor, indeed, does it appear to me to require much consideration 
to convince any one of the insufficiency of this as a permanent 
remedy. In the first place, such concessions are never made^ 
and, under the present system, never v/ill be made, until after 
such a prolonged struggle, that when they come they are always 
felt to have been wrung from the government, and not to have 
proceeded from a sense qf the justice or expediency of granting 
them ; they never remove the distrust w^hich is felt of the pro- 
vincial executive government ; they leave untouched the great 
evil of the disadvantageous comparison which is constantly before 
the eyes of the people, when they look at the administration of 
the imperial government by the King, and that of the provincial 
government by his representative. They see the former always 
so far consulting the wishes of his people, as never to keep in 
his councils persons who have not the confidence of their repre- 
sentatives, while in the administration of their own government 
they see the mere representative of that sovereign constantly 



57 

surrounded by those very individuals of whom^ sometimes with 
reason and perhaps sometimes without, they have become dis- 
trustful and jealous ; and they very ijatually ask the question, 
why are not our representatives to be paid as much attention 
to by the King^s deputy as the representatives of our fellow 
subjects in England by the King himself ? Astute reasonings 
may no doubt be framed, and fine distinctions drawn upon the 
subject ; but this is a plain common-sense and practical view of 
it, out of which, be assured, it will be impossible ultimately to 
persuade the yeomanry of Upper Canada. You may indeed, by 
strenuously insisting on the inapplicability of this principle to 
their situation, drive them to insist on a more extended system 
of elective institutions. By refusing what no one can deny to 
be an English principle, the same upon which your lordship and 
your colleagues were selected to fill the high and responsible 
situations which you hold in His Majesty^s councils, the same 
by which you at this mom^ent continue to retain those places, 
you may indeed divert their attention to another direction, and 
drive them to call for the power of electing their own governor 
and their own executive ; but you never can persuade them to 
abandon the object of obtaining more influence than they now 
possess through their representatives in the administration of 
the executive government of the colony. 

I now come to the consideration of the fourth remedy, which 
consists of nothing more than having the provincial govern-* 
ment, as far as regards the internal affairs of the province, con^ 
ducted by the Heutenant-governor (as representative of the para^ 
mount authority of the mother country), with the advice and 
assistance of the executive council acting as a provincial cabinet^ 
and composed of men possessed of the public confidence, whose 
opinions and policy would be in harmony with the opinions and 
poHcy of the representatives of the people. This, as I have 
before said, I look upon, not only as an efficient remedy, but as 
the only efficient one that can be applied to the evils under 
which the province is at present sufiering. 

I shall avoid troubling your lordship with any observations 
upon the construction of the constitutional act, because, not 
only has the subject already been fully entered into in the 
report of the select committee of the house of assembly, but I 
sincerely believe matters to have arrived at that point when it 
really signifies nothing whether it be or be not required by the 



58 

charter. The only question worth discussing is^ whether it is or 
is not expedient that the principle should be applied to it ; and 
for this purpose^ all that it is necessary to ascertain in the first 
instance is, that there is nothing in the charter which forbids 
the application of such a principle. That this is the case, as 
it has never been denied, and as the principle in its practical 
appHcation consists in fact merely in the ordinary exercise of 
the royal prerogative, will, I take it for granted, be readily ad- 
mitted. The concession of the principle therefore calls for no 
legislative interference ; it involves no sacrifice of any constitu- 
tional principle ; it involves no sacrifice of any branch of the 
royal prerogative ; it involves no diminution of the paramount 
authority of the mother country ; it produces no such embar- 
rassment to the home government as in the present state of the 
imperial parliament the attempt to grant an elective legislative 
council would be almost certain to do. From being an English 
principle, it would strengthen the attachment of the people to 
the connection with the mother country, and would place the 
provincial government at the head of public opinion, and 
enable it to influence, if not guide, that public opinion, instead 
of occupying its present invidious position, — of being always in 
direct opposition to it. 

But, in addition to these advantages, which this remedy pos- 
sesses in an eminent degree over all others that have been sug- 
gested, it would be found effectual for the purposes desired. 
Permit me to re-state those objects : they were, first, that the 
different branches of the provincial government should be 
brought to act in harmony with eacli other; and, secondly, 
that the people should feel that they had sufficient influence upon 
their government to secure attention to their rights and respect 
for their feelings and prejudices. I am of opinion that this 
principle, if fully and fairly acted upon, would effect both those 
objects. An executive council constituted upon this principle 
would, from their situation as confidential advisers of the 
lieutenant-governor, necessarily have great influence in the house 
of assembly. Their weight in the country, as well as their con- 
fidential situations about the person of the lieutenant-governor, 
would give them great weight with the legislative council, and 
they would, of course, from both circumstances possess great 
weight with the lieutenant-governor ; they w^ould generally, if 
not uniformly, be in one or other house of parliament, and would 



59 

there form a centre of union, and, in fact, act as a sort of balance- 
wheel to the constitution. The measures which they brought 
forward, as they would necessarily have the previous sanction of 
the lieutenant-governor, would come recommended, on the one 
hand by all the weight of executive influence, and on the other 
by the support of those to whom the people, both from habit and 
principle, had been accustomed to look with confidence. The 
people would therefore be predisposed to receive their measures 
with satisfaction and confidence, as the fruit of the advice of 
their friends and the legislative council, as recommended by the 
servants of the crown, whose interests as well as duty it was to 
recommend nothing but what was safe as well as satisfactory to 
the public. What it was not deemed wise or prudent to adopt, 
instead of being suifered to pass heedlessly through the assembly, 
and left to be thrown out by the legislative council, or negatived 
by the veto of the lieutenant-governor, would be met in the first 
instance and resisted ; because every step that such proposal ad- 
vanced would increase the probability of ultimate embarrass- 
ment to the executive council and those Vv^hose confidence they 
enjoyed, who would of course be always the most powerful party 
in parliament. Such an executive council would necessarily 
feel a moral as well as political responsibility for the success of 
their measures. Their permanent connection with the country, 
as well as a sense of duty and natural desire to retain oiSice, 
would necessarily insure their utmost exertions, not only to 
procure harmony but to produce good government. The people, 
when they saw that the King's representative would not retain 
men in his councils who had forfeited their confidence, would be 
the more careful in the exercise of the elective franchise, and far 
less likely to withdraw their confidence from those in whom they 
had once found reason to place it. That the adoption of this 
principle would, without vesting the election of the executive in 
the people, place in their hands such an indirect influence upon 
it as would be sufficient to secure attention to their rights, 
feelings, and prejudices, is sufficiently evident ; because, if such 
attention were not paid by those in the confidence of the lieu- 
tenant-governor, the people would have only to return to 
the next parliament men who would not give them par- 
liamentary support, and they would necessarily have to resign, 
and the heutenant-governor to appoint others who possessed the 
Confidence of the representatives of tlie people ; A. B. and C. 



60 

would go out of office^ and D. E. and F. would come in^ the 
lieutenant-governor always retaining the power of calling into 
action his superintending control with respect to the measures 
of both the one and the other ; and the effect produced upon 
the interests of the mother country being none other^ than that 
the change would give satisfaction^ and^, at leasts most probably^ 
ensure good government in the management of the internal 
aifairs of the colony. 

But it will be said that even under this system collision may 
arise. The lieutenant-governor may disapprove of the measures 
recommended by his council^ and find it impossible to form an 
executive council^ which could secure parliamentary support 
upon any other terms than concession^ or the executive council 
may find it impossible to bring the two houses to an under- 
standing upon every measure. To which I reply^ that the prac- 
tical working of the principle would be sure to postpone such 
collision to the latest possible period. That the intermediate 
steps of a change of the executive council_, and of appealing to 
the people by a dissolution^ would at aU. events give the home 
government the great advantage of not itself coming in collision 
with the people till the last moment^ and of ascertaining the 
exact point where the question of concession would become one 
merely of expediency. In addition to which I would remark, 
that this objection is equally applicable to the practical working 
of the principle in this country ; with this great difference^ that, 
supposing the people of England to be wholly unreasonable in 
their demands, the crov>^n has, in point of fact, no means of resist- 
ance ; whereas, in the case of a colony there is, as a last resort, 
the application of that power, which, independent of the in- 
fluence which a knowledge of the possession of it would neces- 
sarily give to the representative of the home government, in the 
course of the previous contest, will always rest in the hands of 
the parent state to be exercised when all other means fail ; so, 
that were the principle a mere experiment, to be now tried for 
the first time, a colony would be a safer subject for such experi- 
ment than the mother country. With respect to collision be- 
tween the two houses, such, under the operation of this princi- 
ple, is surely not more hkely to happen in the working of the 
Upper Canada constitution than in that of the mother country ; 
and the utmost that can be done by the most perfect system is 
to guard against the probability, not the possibiHty of difficulties. 



61 

Such collision might happen even between two elective bodies, 
and in point of fact does happen, not only occasionally but every 
day, under the constitution as at present acted upon ; and at the 
worst such a case would be open to be disposed of in the same 
way as a similar one in England, with this difference only, that 
the appointment of a batch of new legislative councillors is not 
subject to the same difficulty that the creation of new peerages 
is, as the seats of legislative councillors are not hereditary ; and, 
finally, the ultimate resource of making the legislative council 
elective, if indeed it be still found necessary to do so, will be as 
open to be taken as ever. 

It is objected, that the concession of this principle is incon^ 
sistent with the preservation of the paramount authority of the 
mother country. With respect to this I would remark, that it 
does not appear to be more so than the concession of the power 
of legislation. In the one case you vest the power of legislating 
on the internal affairs of the colony in a local parliament, with 
the consent of the King^s representative. In the other, you leave 
the executive poAver in the hands of the King's representative, 
requiring only that it should be exercised with the advice of 
persons, valued by himself, but possessed of weight and in-" 
fluence with the people whose local affairs he is deputed to 
administer. 

It is objected, that it would interfere with the patronage of 
the lieutenant-governor. This also appears to me to be an error* 
The power of appointment to office would remain in the lieu^ 
tenant-governor as at present ; the right of advising is all that 
is claimed for the executive council. If such be considered an 
interference, it is such as can be exercised alone to prevent 
mischief ; but suppose that it actually deprived the lieutenant- 
governor of every vestige of patronage, the simple question isy 
is the patronage in the hands of the lieutensnt-governor the 
great object for which England desires to retain Upper Canada ? 
If this be indeed the chief or only object, let it be candidly 
avowed. I will only remark, that the people have been here- 
tofore induced to believe that the home government were 
actuated by other and loftier motives. 

It is objected, that it would lessen the responsibility of the 
lieutenant-governor to the home government. This is a mis- 
take ; cTery act of the provincial government would be the act 
of the lieutenant-governor, requiring his full consent quite as 



62 

much as at present. How would he be less responsible then to 
the King and parliament of the empire^ because he acted upon 
the advice of those who had the confidence of the people ? The 
lieutenant-governor is the connecting link between the government 
of the two countries. You cannot make him responsible to the 
people of the province ; such would be wholly inconsistent with 
the respect due to the sovereign w^hom he represents, and fatal 
to the connection between the two countries. The proper place 
for his responsibility to rest is in England. But you must give 
the people such an influence upon their executive government 
as will prevent the constant jealousy to which it is at present 
exposed. You can do so only either by permitting a direct 
influence by vesting the election of the executive in the hands 
of the people, which I look upon as inexpedient and imsafe, or 
you must give them that indirect influence which they see con- 
stantly exercised by their fellow subjects through their repre- 
sentatives in this country. 

With respect to the objections, that the application of this 
principle would lead to the executive council falhng into the 
hands of a few metropohtan families, I would remark, that it 
seems much less likely to have that efTect than the present 
system, and that if it had it would be an evil for which the 
people would have to blame themselves only, and therefore not 
one which could be attributed to the honie government, or their 
representative the lieutenant-governor ; and, above all, one the 
remedy for which would be in their own hands. The same 
may be said as to the rather inconsistent objections, that it 
would lead to too many changes, and that there are not persons 
enough in the province qualified to fill the office of executive 
councillor. 

But it is pretended that the people of Upper Canada are 
opposed to having this indirect influence upon the executive in 
the hands of their representatives. Premising that the real 
value and importance of the principle itself cannot depend either 
upon what the people do really think upon the subject, or what 
they may by violence and misrepresentation be persuaded to 
affbrd reasons for supposing that they think, I proceed to. 
remark that the proposition appears absurd on the face of it ; 
it is like an attempt to make one believe that a thirsty man has 
an objection to receive water, or a hungry man food. But what 
is the fact ? as I have already stated, this is no new principle. 



63 

brought forward for the first time on the present occasion ; it has 
been before the people more or less prominently since 1820. 
In 1828 or 1829 it was introduced into the address in reply to 
the speech from the throne, and continued to be so, except 
during the parliament of 1830, in which the administration had a 
majority, and of course when the executive are in the majority^ 
is not the time for the practical application of the principle. 
But in 1835 it was made the subject of solemn appeal to the 
home government, in an address to the King, passed by a 
majority of twenty-one votes, in which His Majesty was in- 
formed, that until the principle was acted upon it could not be 
expected that the administration would give satisfaction, or that 
there would be any real or permanent harmony between the 
government and the representatives of the people. The addresses 
presented to Sir Francis Head since the prorogation of the 
last provincial parliament are depended upon as showing that 
the people are opposed to the concession of this principle. If 
such really be the opinion of the people, it is, to say the least of 
it, somewhat remarkable, that no expression of that opinion 
took place after the close of the session of 1835, although in the 
very address to which I have referred, the assembly intimated 
their intention of withholding the supplies if their voice was not 
heard; that even after the resignation of the late executive 
council, a resolution declaring it to be the opinion of the house of 
assembly, "that the appointment of a responsible executive 
council, to advise the lieutenant-governor on the affairs of the 
province, was one of the most happy and wise features in the con- 
stitution, and essential in our form of government,^^ was adopted 
with but two dissenting voices out of a house of fifty-five 
members, and that it was not until some time afterwards that 
exertions began to be made to excite even the tory party 
against the late council, and all who thought with them. This 
is not the first time that a colonial lieutenant-governor has had 
resort to adulatory addresses, in order to give a colouring to his 
proceedings in reporting them to the home government. The 
ease with which such addresses can be procured is either not 
known or never considered. The addresses to Sir Peregrine 
Maitland in 182? or 1828 were not less violent in their language 
against the majority of the then assembly than have been both 
the addresses and replies on the present occasion, and yet the 
general election which followed left the executive government in 



64 

a minority as small^ if not smaller^ than in the preceding 
parliament. 

But should Sir Francis Head by violence and intimidation 
unhappily succeed in procuring a majority in the next provincial 
parliament^ do not suppose^ my lord^ that there will be the less 
necessity for the application of this principle. New difficulties 
will daily spring up^ and when once the delusion under which 
the popular mind has been acted upon has passed away, it will 
return with double pertinacity, not, I fear, merely to the princi- 
ple now asked for, but to changes of a more extensive and 
organic character. Time, I am persuaded, will convince your 
lordship of this. I tremble lest that conviction should arriv© 
too late to prevent the consequences which I deprecate. 

To conclude, my lord, I most earnestly recommend, not only 
as expedient, but necessary, for the preservation of the connection 
between this country and Upper Canada, first, that His Ma- 
jesty^s imperial government should at once adopt the final 
determination, that the provincial government, as far as respects 
the internal affairs of the province, should be conducted by the 
lieutenant-governor^ with the advice and assistance of an execu* 
tive council, acting as a provincial cabinet ; and that the same 
principle on which His Majesty's cabinet in this country is 
composed, should be applied and acted upon in the formation^ 
continuance in office, and removal of such local provincial 
cabinet. Secondly, that this resolution of the home govern- 
ment should be inserted in the shape of a specific clause in the 
general royal instructions for the government of the province, 
and formally communicated to both houses of the provincial 
parhament; and thirdly, that Sir Francis Head should be 
recalled, and a successor appointed who shall have been prac- 
tically acquainted with the working of the machinery of a free 
representative government. 

I have now stated to your lordship briefly my views and 
6pinions, and I am ready to aiford any further explanations that 
your lordship may desire, I may of course be mistaken in 
both, but I assure your lordship that I am in my own mind 
most firmly persuaded, that unless the course above recom- 
mended be promptly adopted and pursued, it will be wholly 
out of the power of the mother country to preserve the aiFec- 
tions of the Upper Canadian people, although she may, of 



65 

Course, for a time continue to retain them in subjection to her 
authority. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 

Right Hon. Lord Glenelg, 
&c. &c. &c. 



My Lord, 4, Trinity Court, Charing Cross, I6th July, 1836. 
In the letter which I had the honour of addressing to your 
lordship on Tuesday last, I frankly explained my own views 
and opinions, and informed your lordship of the extent to 
which I was convinced they were concurred in by the people 
of Upper Canada. All, however, that was asked in the repre- 
sentation from the late executive council to the heutenant- 
governor was, that the council should be consulted on the 
affairs of the province, or the public made aware generally that 
they were not uniformly consulted upon them. I feel it a 
duty to call your lordship's attention to this circumstance, 
because I cannot state that all my late colleagues concur to 
the full extent in my views and opinions; and it would be 
uncandid towards you, and might be unjust to them, to permit 
your lordship to suppose that they went further than the repre- 
sentation itself set forth ; and your lordship wiU perhaps permit 
me to take this opportunity, the last which will most probably 
present itself, of doing those gentlemen the justice of stating 
to your lordship, that from aU that passed during the short 
period of my official connection with them, and for some of 
them certainly I entertained no political predilections which 
could have misled my judgment in this particular, I am fully 
comdnced that in making the representation to Sir Francis 
Head, they were actuated by the most earnest desire to afford 
their best assistance in preventing embarrassment, and insuring 
to him a prosperous and satisfactory administration of the 
government. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 

Right Hon, Lord Glenelg. 
&;c. &c. &c. 



Sir, Doivning-street, 30th My, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt 



F 



66 

of your letter of the 16th instant, relative to certain recent 
proceedings in the province of Upper Canada ; and, in reply, I 
am to inform you, that a copy of your communication will be 
transmitted to Sir Francis Head, for such observations as he 
may have it in his power to offer on the subject referred to by 
you. 

I have, &c. 
K Baldwin, Esq. (Signed) GEO. GREY. 



My Lord, 4, Trinity Court, Charing Cross, 2Sth July, 1836. 

Considering the present state of Upper Canada, and the 
deep interest which I necessarily have in the fate of that pro- 
vince, your lordship will not, I trust, consider as an intru- 
sion, a request to know whether His Majesty's government 
have come to any decision on the points suggested by me as of 
preliminary importance, in my letter to Mr. Hume of the 14th 
ult., and which that gentleman immediately transmitted to the 
colonial office. 

His Majesty's decision on the bills for the improvement of 
the roads, lighthouses, and the final settlement of the war loss 
question, upon the terms proposed by the home government 
itself, would seem to require no very protracted consideration : 
their importance is unquestioned. 

If, therefore. His Majesty's government have come to a 
decision on these points, and your lordship feels at hberty to 
communicate it, I shall feel obliged by being informed of the 
result. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 

Right Hon, Lord Glenelg. 

&c. &;c. &c. 



Sir, Downing-street, 4th August, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 28th ultimo, and to return to you the follow- 
ing answer thereto : 

His lordship is not insensible to the deep interest which 
you must unavoidably take in whatever relates to the adminis- 
tration of the government of Upper Canada, and is anxious to 
manifest towards you personally the respect and courtesy which 



67 

are due to you; but, as you are invested with no public 
or official character, his lordship cannot, without departing 
from a settled and necessary rule of official correspondence, 
enter into explanations with you as to the course of proceeding 
which it may be the intention of His Majest3^'s government to 
pursue in reference to the conduct of the affairs of that pro- 
vince. Lord Glenelg must, therefore, refer you to his published 
despatch to Sir F. Head, as explanatory of the general prin- 
ciples to which His Majesty's government are pledged, and to 
which it is their fixed purpose to adhere in their administration 
of the government of Upper Canada. 

I have, &c. 
Robert Baldwin, Esq. (Signed) GEO, GREY, 



My Lord, 4, Trinity Court , Charing Cross, 4th Aug, 1836, 

I TAKE the liberty of inclosing to your lordship the printed 
copy of an address from the reform alliance society, of the 14th 
May last, which, as expressing the sentiments of an influential 
body, and explaining their views in answer to the speech made 
by Sir Francis Head on proroguing parliament, I deem it 
proper to submit for your lordship's information. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 

Right Hon, Lord Glenelg. 
&c. &c. &c. 



Sir, Downing-street, 12th August, 1836, 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt 
of your letter of the 4th instant, inclosing the printed copy of an 
address from the " reform alliance society" of Upper Canada. 

I have, &c. 
R. Baldwin, Esq. (Signed) GEO. GREY. 



My Lord, 4, Trinity Court, Charing Cross, \2th Aug, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a letter 
from Sir George Grey of the 4th instant, in reply to my letter 
to your lordship of the 28th ultimo. 

Sir George Grey, while he informs me of your lordship's 
declining to afford me the information requested, expresses your 

f2 



68 

lordship^s desire to manifest towards me^, personally, respect end 
courtesy. While acknowledging your lordship^s politeness in 
this particular, you will excuse me for expressing my full con- 
sciousness of respect and courtesy, being both, as your lord- 
ship admits, my due ; and permit me to assure you, that I should 
never have done your lordship the injustice of assuming that 
any course which you might deem it your duty to take, could have 
been meant to show want of personal respect or courtesy, my 
right to which I knew that I had never forfeited. 

Nothing, as I have before assured your lordship, could have 
induced me to trespass on your attention, but a sense of duty 
arising from what I believed, and still beheve, to be a peculiarly 
dangerous crisis in the poHtical affairs of Upper Canada ; and 
your lordship will, I am sure, give me credit for being free from 
any desire to violate any settled or necessary rule of official 
correspondence. 

Since I last had the honour of addressing your lordship, it 
appears, by the accounts in the public papers, that Sir Francis 
Head has succeeded in procuring a majority of members ready- 
to support him and his present council in the new parliament. 
I candidly admit to your lordship, that I did not beheve that 
his Excellency, with all his official influence, and all the violence 
to which he has resorted, would have been able to have accom- 
plished this. 

The event of these elections does not, however, in the least 
lessen the necessity for the adoption of the principle contended 
for in the working the machinery of the provincial government, 
though it win of course postpone the period for again calling for 
its practical apphcation. I however once more take the hberty 
of entreating your lordship not to sufi'er yourself to be led away 
with the supposition that the people of Upper Canada are 
opposed to the principle ; they may be in favour of Sir Francis 
Head and his present executive council, but to suppose them 
opposed to the principle in itself, involves, if not an absurdity, 
at least a conclusion so inconsistent with the natural impulse 
of the human mind as to render the adoption of such supposi- 
tion a certain foundation of future mischief. The Upper 
Canadians see this principle in full and beneficial operation in 
the mother country, and they wiU not be satisfied with being 
told that, though very good for their fellow subjects in England, 
it is very unfit for them- The fact of the government having 



69 

appealed to the people by a dissolution, and awaited the result 
of that appeal, is, it is true, of itseK, as far as it goes, a practical 
application of the principle contended for ; but I cannot omit 
this opportunity of once again urging the expediency of your 
lordship's not losing the present opportunity of confirming the 
attachment of the people to the mother country, by an open and 
direct avowal that the principle, thus already so far applied, is. 
in future to be fully carried out and uniformly acted upon. 
Such a course would, I firmly believe, conciliate affection and 
confirm confidence, both which your lordship may be assured 
are most necessaiy to the preservation of the connection between 
the two countries. Let the present opportunity pass, and one 
so favourable may, most probably will, never again occur. 

I cannot close without adverting to a report and address 
from the legislative council of the 19th of April last, which I 
have only seen within these few days, though no doubt it has 
been some time before your lordship. 1 do so, because without 
at present adopting all its conclusions, or feeling myself 
competent to pronounce upon the accuracy of its statements, 
it appears to me to contain a forcible illustration of the utter 
inefficiency of the system heretofore adopted in conducting the 
provincial government of Upper Canada; and your lordship 
wiU see, that the want of executive servants to conduct the 
legislative business of the government through parliament is, in 
the last paragraph but one, distinctly, though delicately, pointed 
at. 

I shall trouble your lordship no further ; I have now done all 
that was in my power to avert the consequences which I appre- 
hend. My opinions have been avowed with equal frankness to 
the representative of the King in the province and to His Ma- 
jesty's government in this country, and the consequences, which 
I anticipate from the adoption of a different line of policy from 
that which I have respectfully recommended, exphcitly pointed 
out to both. Over the result I have of course no control, although 
I shall necessarily be involved in its consequences. I feel how- 
ever that I have now discharged my duty ; and your lordship 
will, I am sure, be my witness that I have omitted nothing, which 
was in my power, that could tend to impress His Majesty's go- 
vernment with the importance which I attached to the principle, 
and the necessity which I conceived to exist for its prompt and 



70 

avowed application 'as a permanent principle of government to 
the provincial constitution. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 

Right Hon, Lord Glenelg, 
&c. &c. &c. 



My Lord, A, Trinity-court, Charing-cross, \2th August, 1836. 

I HAVE been requested, by the editor of the Correspondent and 
Advocate newspaper of Toronto, to submit the inclosed deposi- 
tion to your lordship. 

I subjoin an extract from Mr. O'Grady^s letter, in which his 
motives are explained. 

Your lordship will be kind enough to consider this as proceed- 
ing wholly from that gentleman. As far as I am myself con- 
cerned, I have already, in my interview with Lord John RusseU, 
taken the only kind of notice that I shall condescend to do of 
the rumours referred to. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) ROBERT BALDWIN. 

Right Hon, Lord Glenelg, 
&c. &c. &c. 



Extract referred to in the foregoing letter, 
'' It having been currently reported here since your departure 
for England, that his Excellency Sir F. B. Head has represented 
to the Colonial Office that Mr. Rolph and yourself are the 
authors of the rejoinder to his Excellency's answer to the 
address of the inhabitants of this city, lately presented to him, I 
deem it a duty I owe to you to inclose the attestation of J. H. 
Price, Esq., before his worship the Mayor, and certified by his 
Excellency, from which it will appear what httle credit should 
be given to such a representation. For the sake of truth and 
justice, I have to request you will submit it to the consideration 
cf His Majesty's Secretary of State for the colonies. That 
document (the rejoinder) having appeared in the correspondent 
and advocate newspaper, it becomes more particularly my duty 
to correct any misrepresentation that might have been put into 
circulation regarding its authorship, to the prejudice of others. 

^^It has also been stated in the demi-official press of this 
city (the Toronto Courier), that certain members of the late 



71 

executive council, including Messrs. Markland, Dunn, and 
yourself, together with W. W. Baldwin, Esq., and Dr. O^Grady, 
were in the habit of holding midnight cabals, to embarrass the 
local government. This you know is an unqualified falsehood. 
I have no knowledge of any such cabals ; and you will admit 
that my acquaintance with you for some four or five years 
past could not warrant such an intimacy between you and me. 
We have scarcely interchanged the ordinary courtesies of life, 
and still we are falsely accused of caballing together to upset 
Sir F. B.. Head's government ! ! '' 

I do hereby certify and attest, that I was present in 
Dr. O'Grady's house on the twenty-seventh day of March last, 
being the day previous to the pubUcation of the rejoinder to 
Sir Francis Bond Head^s answer to the address of the citizens 
of Toronto, and that I have assisted in copying the same from 
the original, which he was then writing ; and that I have suf- 
ficient reason to believe that Dr. O'Grady was the sole author 
of the same, unaided by any person or persons whatever, except 
a few suggestions made by James Leslie, Esquire, and myself. 
I do further certify and attest, that there was no opportunity of 
submitting that document (either the original, as written by 
Dr. O^Grady, or the copy) to the revision of any other person 
or persons, than of those by whom it was signed previous to its 
being sent to the Correspondent and Advocate ofiice to be print- 
ed, and that the printed copy accorded with the original 
without any alteration or change. 

J. H. PRICE, 
Toronto, 9th May, 1836. Attorney at Law. 



I, Thomas David Morrison, Esquire, mayor of the city of 
Toronto, do hereby certify, that James Harvy Price, of the city 
of Toronto, Esquire, came before me this ninth day of May, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, 
and acknowledged to me that the certificate written on the 
other side hereof, and to which he has subscribed his name, was 
and is true -, and that the same is in his own hand-writing. In 
witness whereof I have hereto subscribed my name, and caused 
the seal of the said city to be hereto afiixed. 

T. D. Morrison, Mayor. 
H. T. M^CoRD, Chamberlain. 



n 

By His Egecellency Sir Francis Bond Head, Knight Commander 

of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Knight of the 

Prussian Order of Merit, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper 

Canada, S^c, S^c, 

These are to certify, that Thomas D. Morrison^ Esquire, 

whose name is subscribed to the foregoing certificate, is Mayor 

of Toronto, duly elected by the common council of the said city 

for the year 1836. 

Given under my hand and office-seal at Toronto, this 10th 
day of May, 1836, in the 6th year of His Majesty^s reign. 

By Command, F. B. HEAD. 

J. Joseph. 



Si r, Downing-street, 1 ^ih August, 1 836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 12th instant, inclosing a deposition made by 
the editor of the Correspondent and Advocate newspaper of 
Toronto, with reference to an article published in that paper as 
a rejoinder to Sir F. Head^s answer to the address of the citi- 
zens of Toronto. In reply, I have to inform you, that until the 
receipt of your letter Lord Glenelg had never been informed 
that the authorship of the article in question had been attri- 
buted to you ; and that certainly no assertion of that nature had 
been ever made by Sir F. Head. 

I have, &c. 
R. Baldwin, Esquire. (Signed) GEORGE GREY. 



No. IT.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 24th August, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to inclose for your information a copy of 
a return which has been presented to the house of commons, 
in pursuance of an address of that house to His Majesty, 
adopted on the motion of Mr. Hume, M.P. 

I am aware, from a comparison of dates, that at the time 
when you received the address of the house of assembly of 
Upper Canada, a copy of which is contained in the inclosed 
parhamentary paper, you could not have been aware of the 
proceedings which had taken place in the month of February 
last in the house of commons relative to orange lodges, and 
that you could not at that time have received my despatch of 
the 27th February, transmitting to you a copy of the addi'ess to 



73 

the King from the house of commons on this subject, and of 
His Majesty^s answer to that address. 

On the recent occasion of some observations reflecting on 
your conduct, with reference to this question being made in the 
house of commons, Sir G. Grey felt it his duty distinctly to 
state this fact to the house, as materially affecting any opinion 
which might be formed of the policy or propriety of the terms 
of your answer to the address of the assembly of Upper Canada. 

I need scarcely observe, that there is nothing which His Ma- 
jesty^s government do more deeply regret, than that, while their 
unremitting endeavours are directed in this country, and espe- 
cially in Ireland, to check the evils which have been engendered 
by religious differences, and to put a stop to the irritation and 
violence which party processions are calculated to produce, any 
semblance of indifference to the same important object should 
be manifested by His Majesty^s representatives in other parts 
of his dominions, I am very far from assuming that you do 
not cordially enter into the views of His Majesty^s government 
on this subject ; and I should be doing you a great injustice if 
I could admit a question as to your zealous co-operation with 
them in discountenancing those passions and animosities which, 
especially when connected with religious differences, are the 
fruitful sources of innumerable evils, and throw the greatest 
obstacles in the way of the welfare and prosperity of any 
country. 

I have however felt it incumbent on me to call your atten- 
tion to this return, in the full confidence that it is your purpo se 
to administer the government which His Majesty has confided 
to you with the strictest impartiality, and with the single object 
of advancing the real interests of every class of His Majesty^s 
subjects in the province. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 18,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 6th September, 1836. 

With reference to that part of my despatch of the 25th 
July, No. 73, which refers to the reservation of the money, 
bills passed by the legislature of Upper Canada during their last 
session, I have the honour to inform you that the circum - 
stances which rendered that measure expedient, having since 
undergone an entire change, I have not hesitated to advise His 



74 

Majesty now to confirm those bills. His Majesty having been 
graciously pleased to approve that advice, I transmit to you 
herewith an order of His Majesty in council for carrying it 
into effect. 

I need hardly observe, that, in tendering this advice to His 
Majesty, I have by no means departed from the view expressed 
in my despatch of the 25 th July, as to the propriety of your 
conduct in reserving these bills ; but aware of the inconvenience 
which could not but result from a prolonged suspension of 
them, it has been with much satisfaction that I have felt my- 
self relieved from the necessity of a further perseverance in 
that measure. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



jVo. 19.-— Lord Glenelg to Sir R B. Head, K.CH. 
Sir, Downing-streefy 8th September , 1836. 

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches of the 
8th July, No. 56, reporting the result of the recent elections for 
the new house of general assembly of Upper Canada ; of the 
16th July, No. 57> on the subject of the mission of Mr. Dun- 
combe, a member of that house, to this country ; and of the 
23rd July, No. 60, on the subject of the proceedings which 
you propose to adopt on the meeting of the new assembly. 
My motives for acknowledging and answering these despatches 
together will appear in the sequel. 

His Majesty commands me to signify to you the satisfaction 
with which he learns that the appeal made by you, in His 
Majesty^s name, to his faithful subjects in Upper Canada has 
been answered by them in such a manner as fuUy to justify the 
dissolution of the late general assembly. The King is pleased 
to acknowledge, with marked approbation, the foresight, energy, 
and moral courage by which your conduct on this occasion has 
been distinguished. 

It is peculiarly gratifying to me to be the channel of convey- 
ing to you this high and honourable testimony of His Majesty^s 
favourable acceptance of your services. 

In your despatch of the 8th of July you renew, even with in- 
creased earnestness, your demand for advancement to the dig- 
nity of a baronet, and express very strongly an opinion, the 
correctness of which I have no reason to distrust, that a com- 



7, 



r 



pliance with your request would greatly facilitate the jputure con- 
duct of your government. After the unreserved acknowledg- 
ment which the King has been pleased to make of your claims 
on his approbation^ it is almost superfluous to say that His 
Majesty^s confidential servants have not approached the consi- 
deration of this subject without the strongest incUnation to gra- 
tify your wishes. They have felt it to be a question demand- 
ing grave deliberation, because such an accession of rank, 
conferred at the present moment, would carry with it the 
most pubhc and emphatic sanction which it is in His 
Majesty^s power to bestow, upon the measures which have 
distinguished your administration of the government of Upper 
Canada. 

On referring to the despatches which I have addressed to you 
since your arrival in the province, you will perceive that it has 
been my good fortune to have been able to approve every con- 
siderable measure which you have adopted and reported to me. 
Some occasional and minor differences of opinion may, indeed, 
have subsisted between us, but not more important or numerous 
than such as must, in the conduct of public affairs, occur 
between those who claim for themselves, and respect in each 
other, the free exercise of an independent judgment; I am 
therefore happy to think that no reason for withholding or 
delaying the grant of a baronetage, could be derived from a 
consideration of the publicity, which would thus be given to 
His Majesty^s favourable estimate of your past services. 

But to the immediate indulgence of the wish to confer on you 
this dignity, an unexpected impediment has very recently arisen. 
On the day before the prorogation of parhament, a petition from 
Mr. Duncombe was presented to the house of commons, in 
which that gentleman, claiming for himself the credit due to 
him as a member of the assembly of Upper Canada, and 
pledging his personal honour to the truth of his statements, 
made various allegations, impugning your character and conduct 
in respect to the recent elections. Your despatch of the 16th 
July had unfortunately not then reached me ; but Sir George 
Grey, in his place in the house, asserted in the strongest terms 
his disbelief of those accusations; and his opinion, that to prefer 
them in this country, where they could not be subjected to any 
inquiry, rather than in the province itself, where their truth 
might have been immediately investigated, was an act of injustice 



76 

towards you. He pledged himself, however^ that you should 
receive a copy of the petition^ for such explanation as you might 
be able and disposed to offer. In fulfilment of that pledge a 
copy of that petition accompanies this despatch. 

I adopt the opinions thus expressed by Sir George Grey. 
His Majesty's ministers are convinced that it will be in your 
power to repel every part of Mr. Duncombe^s charges. This 
was^ indeed^ their persuasion, even before the arrival of your 
despatch of the 16th July, which, however, although of neces- 
sity only general in its terms, is abundantly calculated to set at 
rest every anxiety on the subject. 

If then it were necessary to refer only to personal conviction, 
there could be no reason for any delay in granting what is so 
anxiously sought. But this is an occasion on which it is not 
permitted to public men to substitute the persuasion, however 
confident, of their own minds, for proofs which would be 
equally satisfactory to others. A charge, vague and general in 
its nature, or proceeding from an anonymous or unworthy 
antagonist, might have been passed over without notice ; but 
this is an accusation, specific as well as grave, and preferred 
before the house of commons by a gentleman who has himself 
the honour of a seat in the provincial assembly. Such imputa- 
tions, advanced on such authority, in such a place, are entitled 
at least to that degree of respect which shall secure for them an 
attentive hearing, and a patient inquiry. 

It remains, therefore, that you should furnish me with your 
answer to Mr. Duncombe^s petition ; and I have His Majest/s 
permission to assure you, that if, as I cannot doubt, that answer 
shall prove complete and satisfactory, the rank of baronet will 
be immediately conferred upon you. 

Having acknowledged the receipt of your despatch of the 23rd 
of July, No. 60, in which you request authority to retract the 
assurance given by His Majesty, respecting the future appro- 
priation of the revenues of the province, I cannot close this 
communication without adverting to the general policy, which, 
under the present aspect of affairs in Upper Canada, His Majesty 
expects and requires you to pursue. As our official intercourse 
is distinguished on your side by a becoming frankness in the 
expression of your opinions, so I am persuaded that I shall best 
consult your wishes, and manifest my respect for your character 
by addressing you with a corresponding freedom from reserve. 



77 

When you were about to leave this country, I addressed to 
you instructions for your guidance on every question which was 
at that period in debate with the house of assembly of Upper 
Canada. In the selection of topics I was guided by the occur- 
rences of that particular period. But the principles on which 
my instructions were founded, were of no occasional or transi- 
tory nature, nor were they adopted only to meet the exigencies 
of the moment ; they were, on the contrary, the result of long 
and earnest reflection on the state of public affairs, not merely 
in the British empire, but throughout the civilized world. It 
appeared to my colleagues and to myself, that in a firm and 
consistent adherence to those principles, would be found the 
best bond of union between the transatlantic and the European 
dominions of the crown. 

The experience of the last few months has not shaken this 
conviction, but has rather given to it additional strength. If I 
stood in need of any authority to prove the wisdom of the 
policy dictated by your original instructions, I should refer to 
the frequent mention of them in your despatches as having 
carried you through the conflict in which you were engaged. 
By proving that the British government had no narrow or 
selfish ends to pursue in British North America; that they 
were resolved at once to maintain the existing constitution, 
and to remedy every real grievance ; and that it was their sole 
aim that the province should prosper in the enjoyment of all 
the franchises enjoyed by His Majesty's subjects or their 
representatives in this kingdom, one most essential object has 
been gained; the well-afi'ected have been detached from a 
dangerous alliance with the opponents of order and tranquillity. 
The recent appeal to the people has been made in the name 
of a Sovereign whose claims to the gratitude and confidence of 
his subjects had been enhanced by the recent avowal of his 
gracious and enlightened purposes. The constituent bodies 
have accordingly rallied rotmd the representative of their King. 

The temper of the last house of assembly, and the manner in 
which they received His Majesty's gracious answer to their re- 
monstrances afford conclusive proof, that by dissolving them 
you overcame an otherwise insuperable obstacle, to the success of 
the measures directed by your instructions. Your report of 
the composition of the new house justifies the sanguine hope, 
that important facilities have now been obtained for the pro- 



78 

secution of those measures ; thus far an invaluable service has 
been rendered. But on the use to be hereafter made of the 
powers which you have thus acquired it will depend, whether 
the result is upon the whole a subject of congratulation or of 
regret. 

You propose that the influence and authority of the govern- 
ment in the new assembly, should be exercised in the retracting 
of a pledge solemnly given by the King to the province. I 
must answer, that there is no danger which ought not to be 
encountered, nor any inconvenience which should not be en- 
dured, in order to avoid the well-founded reproach of a breach 
of faith ; above aU on such a subject, and on such an occasion. 
By the engagements into which the King has entered His 
Majesty will abide, not indeed indifferent to the possible issues 
of that decision, but prepared for any consequence inseparable 
j&rom the observance of his royal word. 

It would be unjust to attribute to you any design to recom- 
mend a violation of His Majesty's promise. The advice which 
you offer you justify on the ground that the conduct of the late 
house of assembly, had too clearly proved the contemplated 
arrangement to be neither safe nor prudent. Your proposition, 
therefore, in effect is, that a pledge entered into with a view to 
the public good, ought not to be maintained after more recent 
experience has proved that the public good would not reaUy be 
promoted by an adherence to it ; and this you assume to be 
the case in the present instance. On this point, however, I 
must beg to differ from you. The assumption on which your 
argument proceeds, identifies in character the last and the 
present houses of assembly. It ascribes to the new representatives 
of the people those designs and principles which led first to the 
dissolution, and then to the rejection of their predecessors. It 
plainly asserts, or necessarily involves the assertion, that the 
representatives of the people of Upper Canada, from what- 
ever class of society they may be chosen, are unworthy to be 
trusted with the appropriation of the revenues of the province, 
and will be led on by every concession to new encroachments 
and usurpations. If compelled to reason on this basis, I should 
be irresistibly urged to consequences far exceeding those which 
you have stated, or perhaps contemplate. But I entertain a 
very different opinion. For the support of the constitution in 
Upper Canada I would, with confidence, appeal to the good 



79 

sense, the loyalty, and the public spirit of the inhabitants at 
large. 

At this distance it is more easy, perhaps, than on the scene 
of action itself, to look dispassionately at the triumph of the 
moment, and to estimate with a sober and cautious foresight 
the ultimate results of what is now passing. Without digressing 
into topics on which I am unwilling without necessity to enter, 
I would only express my belief, that if your present success be 
used for the introduction of what you describe as *^^ acts of a 
stern and decisive nature,^^ we shall throw away the fruits of the 
victory which you have gained, cement again that alliance which 
has for the time been broken up, and provoke a second reaction, 
to which I know not how any effectual resistance could be 
presented. On the other hand, by a firm adherence to the 
phghted faith of the crown, by a frank redress of every real 
grievance, by a cordial eoncession of every just demand, and by 
a resolute opposition to demands of a revolutionary character, 
we shall, I trust, secure every object which is of any real 
moment ; and, even in the event of failure, shall stand absolved 
before God and our country from the reproach of having brought 
upon ourselves public disasters by the dereliction of any duty, 
or the abandonment of any principle. 

In a word. His Majesty commands me to state, that with re- 
gard to Canadian policy, his course is irrevocably taken by the in- 
structions which you have received ; that he will fulfil every 
promise contained in them faithfully and completely ; and that 
a zealous and cordial co-operation on your part, in prosecution 
of the system of policy thus solemnly announced, is the con- 
dition upon which the administration of the province can be 
continued in your hands. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG, 



No, 20.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B. Head, K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 12th September, 1836. 

With reference to my despatch of the 8th instant, I have the 
honour to inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of the 
correspondence which has passed between Dr. Buncombe and 
this department, on the subject of the representations relative 
to the recent elections in Upper Canada, with which he is said 
to have been charged. I also inclose a copy of a letter from 



80 

Mr. Hume to Sir G, Grey, introducing Dr. Duncombe, and of 
Sir G. Grey's answer. 

In his letter of the 23rd ultimo, Dr. Duncombe, as you will 
perceive, proposed to delay for a few days his communication to 
me, in order that he might receive some further intelligence on 
the subject, of which he was in expectation. I have not since 
received his promised statement, but if it should hereafter reach 
me I shall not fail to take the earliest opportunity of furnishing 
you with a copy of it. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



My dear Sir, Bryanston Square, 19 th August, 1836. 

Allow me to introduce the bearer. Dr. Duncombe, member 
of the new house of assembly of Upper Canada, come to Eng- 
land expressly at the request of the reformers of Upper Canada, 
to state to Lord Glenelg circumstances, connected with the elec- 
tions in that province, very important to be made known to the 
colonial office here ; and I request you will give him an oppor- 
tunity of stating to his lordship the important details he has 
been commissioned to make known to His Majesty's govern- 
ment here. 

I shall present a petition to the house of commons this day 
at four o'clock against the conduct of Sir F. Head, and Dr. 
Duncombe will show you a copy, that you may be acquainted 
with the facts alleged in that petition. 

I remain, &c. 
Sir George Grey, Bart, M,P. (Signed) JOSEPH HUME. 
&c. &c. &c. 



Dear Sir, Doivning-street, 20th August, 1836. 

With reference to your note of the 19th instant, which I 
have communicated to Lord Glenelg, I am directed to inform 
you that a copy of the petition to which you refer, and which 
has been subsequently presented by you to the house of com- 
mons, will be forwarded by the earliest opportunity to Sir 
Francis Head, in order to enable him to make such observa- 
tions as he thinks necessary for the vindication of his character 
from the charges alleged against him in the petition. Lord 
Glenelg considers that obvious inconvenience, and perhaps injus- 
tice, might arise if he were to receive from Dr. Duncombe 



81 

verbal Statements in corroboration of the allegations contained 
in the petition, the substance of which Lord Glenelg might be 
unable correctly to transmit to Sir F. Head ; but if his lordship 
is right in inferring from your note, that Dr. Duncombe is 
anxious to make known to His Majesty's government some 
important facts relative to the recent elections in Upper 
Canada, in addition to those contained in the petition, and 
tending to impeach the conduct of Sir F. Head, he requests 
that those statements m.ay be addressed to him in writing, in 
order that they may be forwarded Sir F. Head for his explana- 
tion, together with the copy of the petition. 

I have, &c. 
Joseph Hume, Esq., 3LP, (Signed) GEO. GREY. 

&c. &c. &c. 



Sm, Doivning-street, 20tk August, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour, by the directions of Lord Glenelg, of 
inclosing for your information the copy of a letter addressed by 
me to Mr. Hume, and in answer to a letter from him, in which 
he informed Lord Glenelg that you had come to England 
expressly to state to his lordship circumstances of importance 
connected with the recent elections in Upper Canada. 

I am directed b)^ Lord Glenelg to request that, should it be 
your wish to make any communication to him on this subject, 
you would do him the favour of addressing it to him in writing; 
and I am further to request, that any such communication may 
be placed in his lordship's hands as early as possible, "with the 
vicAv to its being transmitted by the first opportunity to Sir F. 
Head for such explanations as he may feel it his duty to offer. 

I have, &c. 
Pr. Duncombe, (Signed) GEO. GREY. 

&c. &c. &c. 



3, Northumberland-court, Charing -cross, 
Sir, 23rd August, ISSe. 

I HAVE the honour to acloiowledge the receipt of your 
favour of 20th instant, conveying to me Lord Glenelg's request 
that I should communicate in writing any information respect- 
ing the affairs of Canada that I might wish to lay before his 
lordship. 



82 

I have deferred making the statements I am desirous of 
giving his lordship on account of my daily expecting the 
arrival of a greater number of facts^ and more positive evidence 
of those already submitted in my petition. 

Should these not arrive in three or four days^, I shall without 
further delay do myseK the honour of submitting to his lord- 
ship a statement of the facts now in my possession^ and not 
contained in the petition. 

I have^ &c. 
Sir George Grey, (Signed) CHARLES BUNCOMBE. 
Bowning-street, 



Sir, Downing-street, 1st Bept ember, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt of 
your memorial respecting the refusal to issue to you a patent in 
fee simple for the land held by you on lease from the late 
Captain Brant ; and I am to observe, from the various docu- 
ments to which this memorial refers as inclosures, were not 
contained in it, Lord Glenelg would be happy to receive them 
at your earliest convenience. 

I have, &c. 
Charles Buncombe, Esq. (Signed) JAMES STEPHEN. 



3, Northumberland-court, Charing-cross, 
Sir, ^rd September, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your favour 
of the 1st inst., and heremth inclose the papers referred to in 
my memorial to Lord Glenelg of the 31st ultimo. I am very 
desirous of seeing his lordship, that I may explain some circum- 
stances connected with this matter that it is quite impossible to 
communicate by letter. I shall anxiously await his lordship^s 
pleasure. 

I have, &c. 
Jas. Stephen, Esq. (Signed) CHARLES BUNCOMBE. 



Sir, Bowning-street, 5th September, 1836. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your note of the 3rd inst., 
expressing your anxiety to see Lgrd Glenelg in order to make 
some communications to his lordship which you feel yourself 
precluded from transmitting by letter. In reply, I am to inform 



83 

you, that in consequence of his lordship's absence from town 
it has not been in my power to lay your note before him. 

I have, &c. 
Charles Buncombe, Esq. (Signed) JAS. STEPHEN. 

&c. &c. &c. 



3_, Northumberland-court, Charmg-cross, 
Sir, 5M September, 1836. 

Not having received any answer to my note of the 3rd instant 
to Mr. Stephen, expressing my anxious desire to see your lordship 
upon my private business, I must beg your lordship's indul- 
gence while I repeat my wish, and give this further explanation 
of the cause of my urgency. I have a private letter to myself 
upon this subject, containing some important facts, worthy your 
lordship's consideration, which, although I might without im- 
propriety show it to your lordship, yet, should I give it publi- 
city, I have good reason to fear that the violent arbitrary 
measures of the executive government of the colony would be 
severely visited upon the author, who is most devotedly your 
lordship's friend, and whom I would not injure to secure the 
success of my application. 
I have, &c. 

(Signed) CHARLES BUNCOMBE. 
The Right Hon, Lord Glenelg. 
&c. &c. &c. 



S1R5 Downing-street, lOth September, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 5th instant, renewing your application for an 
interview with his lordship, and stating as your reason for so 
doing that you are in possession of a private letter to yourself, 
which you are anxious to submit to him, but which you decline 
to make public from a fear of attracting on the author the dis- 
pleasure of the executive government of Upper Canada. In 
reply I am desired to state, that Lord Glenelg feels assured that 
you will at once perceive the impossibility of his receiving any 
statement, inculpating an officer entrusted with the government 
of one of His Majesty's colonies, on any terms which should 
forbid the immediate disclosure of the charge to the party 
aiFected by it; nor can his lordship admit the supposition that 
any person would be exposed to injury or prejudice on the part 

G 2 



84 

pf Sir F. Head^ by the open and respectful statement of any 
facts connected with the administration of the government of 
Upper Canada. For these reasons^ Lord Glenelg must dechne to 
grant you the private interview which you have sohcited, although 
his lordship will be prepared to receive and to consider any 
statement or documents which you may transmit to him. 

I have^ &c. 
Charles Buncombe, Esq, (Signed) JAMES STEPHEN, 
^c. ^c. ^c. 



No. 21.— Lord Glenelg to Sir R B. Head, K.C.H. 
SiR^ Doivning-street, 22nd September, 1836. 

With reference to my despatches of the 8th and 12th instant, 
I have the honour to inclose to you herewith the copy of a 
letter which I have received from Mr. C. Buncombe, detailing 
the charges respecting your conduct during the recent elections 
in Upper Canada, which it was the object of his mission to this 
country to prefer. I at the same time transmit a copy of the 
answer which has been returned to him by my direction. 

I shall be happy to receive from you, at your early conve- 
nience, any explanation which you may think it necessary to 
offer on the statements contained in Mr. Duncombe^s letter. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



First Inclosure in No. 21. 

3, Northumberland- court, Charing Cross, 
My Lord, 20th September, 18S6, 

I HAVE the honour to acknowlege the receipt of a letter from 
Sir George Grey of the 20th ultimo, together with a copy of a 
letter addressed to Mr. Hume in answer to a letter from him, 
requesting that your lordship would allow me to communicate 
to you personally, circumstances connected with the late elec- 
tions in Upper Canada. 

I very much desired to communicate to your lordship person- 
ally, facts connected with the present discontented and unhappy 
political condition of the people of Upper Canada, which could 
have been done much more readily and satisfactorily verbally 
than by letter, and for which special purpose I was deputed to 
.this country; and, had your lordship thought proper to accede 
-to that request, I should then have been able by that oppor- 



85 

tunity to submit the facts in writing, and Have afforded any 
explanation you might have wished for. 

Mr. Hume has so clearly and forcibly put before your lord- 
ship the object I had in view in coming to this country, and 
the reasons why I should have the opportunity of seeing your 
lordship, that I can add nothing further than that under these 
circumstances I am compelled to yield to your lordship's order, 
and submit the following detail. 

All the various causes that have led to the present unhappy 
state of Upper Canada cannot be detailed in writing without 
trespassing too long upon your lordship's valuable time. 

I shall, therefore, as briefly as possible refer to some (perhaps 
not the most prominent) of the causes that have led to the 
present distracted state of the affairs of that province. 

Upper Canada is purely a British colony, composed of 
Canadians by birth, persons from various parts of His Majesty's 
dominions, and some from foreign countries, most of whom 
have come to Upper Canada to better their conditions, and on 
account of their attachment to and veneration for the consti- 
tution and institutions of Great Britain. 

At the division of the province of Quebec into Upper and 
Lower Canada by the 31st Geo. Ill, on Governor Simcoe's 
assuming the government of Upper Canada, he assured the 
house of assembly, in his opening speech, that this act ^^ estab- 
lished the British constitution, and all {he forms that secure and 
maintain it in this distant colony;" and, in his closing speech 
from the throne, he says: "at this juncture I particularly re- 
commend to you to explain, that this province is singularly 
blessed, not with a mutilated constitution, butwith a constitution: 
which has stood the test of experience, and is the very image 
and transcript of that of Great Britain;" and this has uniformly 
been declared to be the constitution of the province, until the 
recently proclaimed opinion of Sir F. B. Head, that " the con- 
stitution which His Britannic Majesty George the Third granted 
to this province ordained no such absurdities." 

The former confidence in the successful workings of the 
British constitution, if administered according to the genius and 
habits of the people, have induced them, from time to time, for 
the last fifteen years, through the house of assembly and other- 
wise, to petition the governors of the colony. His Majesty, and 
the imperial parliament, for the redress of evils growing out of 



86 

irresponsible administrations, and praying for the application of 
such just and liberal measures, as would secure to all His 
Majesty's subjects in the colony the just administration of the 
laws, equal rights and privileges, and the free enjoyment of civil 
and religious liberty; yet these apphcations have been dis- 
regarded by the executive of the province, and favourable answers 
from His Majesty's government have been so long delayed, or 
so much disregarded by the executive, when they were received,^ 
that the abuses still continued. 

These abuses had so increased towards the close of the admin- 
istration of Sir John Colborne, as to be seriously felt, and loudly 
and openly complained of by the people throughout the province. 

The influence of the house of assembly in the legislature was 
nearly lost, as was evident from the rejection by the other 
branches of the legislature of most of the popular bills passed 
by the house of assembly, although numerously petitioned for by 
the people, and frequently passed by large majorities in that and 
former houses of assemblies, and supported by members repre- 
senting very large majorities of the people ; while the executive 
influence in the government was daily increasing, from the large 
revenues annually disposed of by them, without the sanction of 
law, or even being accounted for to parliament. 

Some of these revenues are the casual and territorial revenue, 
the crown revenue, and crown lands revenue, the college lands 
and funds, the common school lands and funds, all special 
reserves of land and the funds arising from them, other nn- 
settled lands, as the waste lands of the province, and the funds 
arising from them; all of which could be much more beneficially 
appHed to objects of utiUty and pubHc improvement within the 
province by law than at the pleasure of the executive. 

The liberal support of the government and pensioners, the sums 
annually expended for public improvements, canals, hght-houses, 
harbours, roads, and bridges, common schools, district schools, . 
and other casual expenses, far exceeded that part of the revenues 
of the province at the disposal of the provincial legislature. 

This was daily involving the country in a debt that must 
eventually lead to direct taxation, while the natural resources of 
the country were applied by an irresponsible executive govern- 
ment to the support of political priests or the aggrandizement of 
a party without the sanction of law. 

The recall of Sir John Colborne and the appointment of a new- 



87 

governor selected by a reform ministry, with avowed intentions 
to reform the abuses of the colony, was, as Sir F. B. Head ob- 
serves, ^' glorious news ^^ to the people of Upper Canada ; not 
because the individual was changed, but because the people ex- 
pected a change of policy, a responsible executive council, 
composed of persons having the confidence of the people, who 
would administer the government of the colony with hberality 
and equal justice to all ; and their confidence and gratification 
were increased by Sir F. B. Head^s adding to the executive 
council Messrs. Dunn, Baldwin, and Rolph ; and resolutions and 
addresses to Sir F. B. Head were daily presented, from all parts 
of the province and by all political parties, thanking him for 
calling to his councils gentlemen having the fullest confidence of 
the people on account of their talents, integrity, ability, and ex- 
tensive knowledge of the affairs of the proAdnce and the wants 
and wishes of the people; through whose influence it was strongly 
anticipated that the legislative council would be so re-modelled 
as to be rendered a useful branch of the legislature ; for as it is at 
present constituted, it should not be called a branch of the legis- 
lature, it represents no portion of the people of the province nor 
any particular interests in the province, and is only another instru- 
ment of executive power, composed of persons who, like the 
lieutenant-governor and executive council, are appointed by the 
King, and who are not the choice of the people, and vf ho (if pos- 
sible) are still more irresponsible than the other branches of the 
executive government, for they do not even profess to be respon- 
sible even to His Majesty^s government for their conduct. 

At this time, after a call of the house of assembly, fifty-three 
out of fifty-five members present voted that it be ^^ resolved, 
that this house considers the appointment of a responsible 
executive council, to advise the lieutenant-governor or person 
administering the government on the affairs of this province, to 
be one of the most happy and wise features of our constitution, 
and essential to our form of government, and as being one of 
the strongest securities for a just and equitable administration of 
the government and full enjoyment of civil and religious rights 
and privileges/^ 

The adoption by all poUtical parties of this resolution in favor 
of a responsible executive council was received by moderate 
men as a pledge for the future liberal, just, and constitutional 
government of the province ; and although the publication by 



88 

Sir F. B. Head of liis additions to the executive council gave 
hopes to the colony, yet, however, the same irresponsible 
system was pursued, and the public mind held in suspence, until 
the resignation of the executive council and the subsequent dis - 
closure by Sir F. B. Head of his determination to continue the 
irresponsible system, opened the eyes of the people to his real 
tory principles. 

Upon the appointment of the present executive council, com- 
posed of Mr. Sullivan and his associates, the house of assembly 
addressed Sir F. B. Head, expressing their want of confidence 
in his council, partly on account of the individuals composing it, 
but more especially on account of the avowed irresponsible 
tory system, about to be pursued by Sir F. B. Head and his 
new council, in the administration of the affairs of the province ; 
but notwithstanding that address they were retained in office^ 
and the old tory policy continued. It is quite correct that after 
the avowal of Sir F. B. Head of his politics, many of the mem- 
bers who had previously voted for a responsible executive 
council (among whom were His Majesty's solicitor-general and 
the leading tory members of the house of assembly) now voted 
against the very resolution they had before supported. 

Petitions poured in from all parts of the country praying the 
house of assembly not to support the old irresponsible system^ 
but to adopt the onl)^ constitutional means in their power of 
expressing their dissatisfaction of that system, that of with- 
holding the supplies. 

The house of assembly entertained those petitions ; but 
knowing that the influence it had by stopping the supply was 
merely nominal, as the sum under the control of parliament, 
and voted annually for supplies, was less than 8,000/., out of 
40^000/. or 50,OOOZ. annually disposed of by the executive 
government, or permanently appropriated by the 4th Wm. IV. 
towards the payment of salaries, and that their doing so would 
not probably attract more notice now than it did when the sup- 
plies were not passed by the tenth parliament, but for the cir- 
cumstance that Sir F. B. Head, without precedent, refused his ; 
warrant for the payment of contingencies of the legislature, and 
withheld the royal assent from all the money bills (save one) 
passed by both branches of the legislature. 

x\nd here, my lord, allow me to remark the great difference in 
the conduct of Sir F. B. Head and other governors. Lord 



89 

Gosford^ notwithstanding the supplies were withheld in Lower 
Canada, not only paid the contingencies of the Lower Canada 
legislature, to a much larger amount than was required by the 
house of assembly for the contingencies of the legislature of 
Upper Canada, but he also granted the royal assent to all the; 
money bills and all the bills (save one) passed by the other 
branches of the legislature, whilst Sir F. B, Head refused the 
contingencies and the royal assent to the money bills. 
- Sir John Colborne also, when the supplies were withheld in the 
tenth parliament, paid the contingencies and granted the royal as- 
sent to the bills passed by the other branches of the legislature. 

My lord, I can scarcely comprehend how His Majesty's 
government can consistently approve of the conduct of Lord 
Gosford in Lower Canada, as they did of Sir John Colborne's 
conduct in Upper Canada, in pursuing (in this respect) a liberal 
conciliatory course towards the people of both provinces, and 
not disapprove of the high-handed, arbitrary, and unconcilia- 
tory conduct of Sir F. B. Head, in refusing the contingencies and 
withholding the royal assent to the money bills ; dissolving the 
parhament while a great constitutional question, referred home 
by the house of assembly, was pending before His Majesty's 
government, without waiting for your lordship's instructions. 

It appears to me, my lord, quite incredible that your lordship 
can approve of Sir F. B. Head's unconstitutionally interfering 
with the elective franchise, subverting the natural resources of 
the country from their legitimate objects, the improvements of 
the country, to party electioneering purposes, denouncing a 
large proportion of the truly loyal people of the province as 
^'^ our enemies," and allowing, if not actually encouraging, 
orange associations (notwithstanding the resolutions of the 
imperial parliament and His Majesty's royal message thereon) 
to interfere with the elections throughout the province by vio- 
lence and outrage. 

Such conduct, my lord, has induced the people to discuss the 
question of a responsible executive council, and consequently, 
the first principles of government, under circumstances unfa- 
vourable to the present colonial policy, and even to monarchical 
governments. 

The people of Upper Canada have constantly before them, 
on the one hand, in their immediate vicinity, a republican go- 
vernment, highly flourishing, contented, peaceable, and pros- 



90 

perous^ with forty or fifty millions of dollars of surplus revenue 
to be expended in works of public improvement and utility^ 
wages high, the industrious classes actively and profitably 
employed, money plenty, business hvely, wild land cheap and 
easily obtained, improved lands rapidly rising in value, and a 
respectable wealthy emigration rapidly settling and improving 
the western states ; while, on the other hand, they are suffering 
from the arbitrary and unconstitutional conduct of their heu- 
tenant-governor, discontent and excitement prevailing to a 
great degree, their own agriculture in a depressed state, without 
commerce and without manufactures, the province deeply in 
debt, and no provision made for its final payment. While the 
wealth of the country is lavished upon poHtical priests and 
favourites for purposes unworthy of a free government, they 
see public improvements entirely stopped, emigration to the 
province very much checked, the industrious classes thrown 
out of employment, the money market unusually depressed, 
and hundreds anxiously awaiting relief from the distribution of 
public funds voted by the legislature, w^hich hpive been unex- 
pectedly refused by Sir F. B. Head, confidence in pubhc and 
private securities shaken, the large banks obliged to refuse to 
discount as usual, and a state of financial embarrassment 
brought on, seldom, if ever, before witnessed in Upper Canada. 
The people have been told by Sir F. B. Head that they had 
not a responsible executive council, and ^^ that it would be un- 
reasonable to expect that the people of this province should be 
ruined in vainly attempting to be the exact image and transcript 
of the British constitution -^^ but he added, " the constitution 
which His Britannic Majesty George the Third granted to this 
province ordained no such absurdities.^^ 

Sir F. B. Head has pubhcly denounced the great body of 
the people of Upper Canada as " our enemies^^ whom '^ he had 
repelled ;^^ and by his inflammatory harangues exciting and 
alarming the people, by talking of the province being about to 
be ^^ disturbed by the interference of foreigners, whose power 
and whose numbers will prove invincible,^^ and whom he vaunt- 
ingly challenges ; he adds, in his reply to the home district ad- 
dress, ^^ in the name of every regiment of militia in Upper 
Canada I pubhcly promulgate, let them come on if they dare'' 

And when, my lord, by all this despotic conduct of Sir F. B. 
Head, the quiet, peaceable, industrious, and enterprising Cana- 



91 

dians were leaving the province by hundreds, at great private 
sacrifices in the forced sale of their property and possessions, 
to avoid such oppression, and to seek an asylum under a cheap 
responsible government in the United States, the people were 
told by him that all these evils were occasioned by stopping 
the supplies, — ^^ that the money which would not only have im- 
proved your roads, but would have given profit and employ- 
ment to thousands of deserving people, is now stagnant/^ 

" The sufferers in the late war have lost the remuneration 
which was absolutely almost in their hands.'^ 

^^ Emigration has been arrested, and instead of the English 
yeoman arriving with his capital in this free British country, 
mechanics in groups are seen escaping from it in every direc- 
tion, as if it were a land of pestilence and famine/' And this 
the people are told is the " result^' of the " grand object^' of 
" stopping the supplies" of less than 8,000/., not coming in 
course of payment until July and January following, while, in 
fact, he must have known that your lordship must see that all 
these evils, which he so truly describes, were occasioned by his 
own despotic, arbitrary, and unconstitutional conduct, and that 
of his dependants and orange associates. 

If Sir F. B. Head conceals from himself, that he has been the 
cause of all these misfortunes to the people of Upper Canada, 
I hope your lordship will convince him that you have disco- 
vered the real causes to have been what I have stated. 

All these violent measures which I have stated, especially the 
withholding the royal assent from the money bUls, gave very 
general dissatisfaction throughout the province, as the improve- 
ments intended to be carried on by these grants were in a state 
of progression, and required the immediate use of the money 
voted to complete them. 

Of the supphes of money refused by Sir F. B. Head, the 
50,000/. voted for the improvement of the roads and bridges 
w^as very much required, and could have been much more pro- 
fitably expended in the early part of the summer season, if he 
had sanctioned the bill immediately, than after the lapse of time 
that would be required for the royal sanction. 

The sum of 20,000/. granted by the assembly for the relief of 
the war loss sufferers, by which the large sum of 67^000/. 
would have been paid to them and their whole claim settled, 
which had already been deferred for more than twenty years j 



92 

yet, Aotwitlistanding that the bill was passed in exact accord- 
ance with his His Majesty's previous instructions, that bill was 
also refused the royal assent by Sir F. B. Head. 

The bill for the support of the convicts in the penitentiary ; 

The bill for the support of the lighthouses ; 
. The bill for the support of common schools, and various other 
bills, for public improvements and for the payment of debts due 
to individuals, were by Sir F. B. Head all refused the royal as- 
sent, and will be found to have been the real cause why so many 
of the industrious inhabitants of Upper Canada were flying from 
their native country, as from a pestilence, as stated by Sir F. B. 
Head. They were in reality flying from the arbitrary acts of Sir 
F. B. Head. 

My lord, I call your special attention to the charges, that as 
well after as before the late parliament was dissolved, and writs 
issued for the new parliament. Sir F. B. Head unduly inter- 
fered with the freedom of elections, by attempting to bias and 
overawe the people by denouncing in public addresses the mem- 
bers composing the majority of the late house of assembly 
(most of whom were candidates for re-election) as enemies to 
the people of the province. 

Your lordship's attention is also directed to the charges, that 
pubhc money has been most unconstitutionally placed at the 
disposal of committees or other agents of the tory candidates to 
assist them in their elections. 

That the sum of 5001. was placed at the disposal of the tories, 
calling themselves the constitutional society, to be expended in 
aiding the election of the tory candidates. 

That another sum was placed in the hands of the clerk of the 
h-ouse of assembly, with instructions to go to the eastern district 
and use that money to the best advantage (no doubt corruptly) 
for securing the election and return of members who would 
support the unconstitutional policy of Sir F, B. Head. 

. It is further alleged, that notwithstanding the terms of Lord 
Goderich's despatch to Sir John Colborne, (every word of which 
Sir F. B. Head is requested, by that of your lordship of the 5th 
of December last, to attend to,) in which the lieutenant-governor 
is told, that '^ His Majesty expects and requires of you neither 
to practice nor allow, on the part of those who are oflScially 
subordinate to you, any interference with the rights of any of 
His Majesty's subjects in the free and unbiassed choice of their 



93 

representatives ;" — in direct opposition to all these instructions:, 
my lord^ Sir F. B. Head has not only interfered with the elec- 
tions himself, but openly allowed and encouraged all persons 
under him to interfere with and influence the elections by every 
means in their power ; by which extraordinary conduct more 
than one-third of the newly elected house of assembly are sheriffs 
representing the counties within their executive jurisdiction and 
other paid officers holding their situations during the pleasure 
of the lieutenant-governor. 

I submit^ my lord^ that the permitting public paid officers, 
removeable at pleasure, to seats in the assembly, is contrary to 
the spirit, if not the letter of the British act, which should apply 
to Upper Canada as well as to Great Britain, and deserves your 
immediate attention. 

I further state that the rules and regulations ordinarily ob- 
served in the land- granting department were wholly disregarded, 
for the purpose of aiding the partizans of Sir F. B. Head, by 
issuing patents or grants of land to tory followers, before they 
had perfected the conditions upon which they were promised 
such lands ; while many persons who had long before complied 
with the terms of their location, and who had frequently and 
urgently pressed the public offices, urging their extreme anxiety 
to receive their patents, have been obliged to wait until after 
the election; that many of these patents have been issued, 
pending or during the elections, to persons residing out of the 
county or riding for very small parcels of land, — in many in- 
stances for not more than one quarter or half an acre of wild 
land without any house on it ; thus creating a great number of 
voters., who went from one election to another, and voted at 
each election, so that the real freehold electors, resident in the 
counties or ridings, thus intended to be represented according to 
the spirit of the election laws of the province intended to guard 
against bribery and corruption, have been out-numbered, and 
their elective franchise thus unconstitutionally tampered with. 

The following are some of the many instances of the uncon- 
stitutional interference by Sir F. B. Head and his dependents 
with the elective franchise : 

William Higgins, bailiff to the sheriff and court of requests 
Toronto city, voted against the reform candidate upon a deed 
signed by Sir F. B. Head, 27th June, 1836 ; George Walton, 
bailiff and sub-sheriff, after electioneering for the tory candidate, 



94 

took the oaths, and voted upon about half an acre without 
buildings upon it, patent dated the Monday previous ; John 
Powel, attorney, and grandson of the late chief justice, voted 
against the reform candidate upon a quarter acre of land, upon 
which there were no buildings, — grant by Sir F. B. Head, 28th 
June, 1836, during the progress of the election; Finley Ca- 
meron voted against the reform candidate, patent issued by Sir 
F, B. Head during the election, 28th June, 1836 ; John Crigh- 
ton and Hue M^Lallan voted against the reform candidate under 
a grant of Sir F. B. Head, patents dated 25th June, 1836 ; 
alderman Doctor John King, of the city of Toronto, voted 
against the reform candidate in the second riding of York, 
under a grant of Sir F. B. Head of about one quarter of an acre 
of land without a house, dated, during the election, 28th June, 
1836; Robert Ruston and Thomas Johnson voted against the 
reform candidate upon free grants from the crown for 100 
acres each, patents dated 25th June, 1836. Most of the above 
persons resided out of the second riding of York, where they voted. 

It is further alleged that many votes were created by giving 
patents to persons who had commuted their pensions, and who, 
without having any special claim for land, had been allowed to 
occupy small parcels under a licence of occupation, without the 
power to dispose of it, contrary to the original intent of the 
location. 

That patents have been issued for parts of lots without a 
description of the part, where only part of the original purchase 
money had been paid, contrary to the original order under which 
the same was located ; that in other instances patents have been 
issued to individuals for the whole of the lots they had contracted 
for, without the payment of the whole of the money originally 
demanded, contrary to the uniform practicCj which requires that 
the whole of the money shall be paid before the patent shall be 
issued. In all these cases, the persons thus favoured, voted for the 
tory candidate, and in no one instance did any of those persons 
vote for the reform candidate. These examples serve to show 
some of the many ways, by which votes were created by Sir. 
F. B. Head to support the tory candidates and overwhelm the 
reformers in different parts of the province. 

My lord, the honest freehold electors, who had long resided 
in the province, were prevented from voting in many of the 
counties and ridings of the province, as illustrated in the follow- 



95 

ing instance : — Wait Sweet's vote for Mr. M'Kenzie^in the second 
riding of York^ was rejected because he was born in the United 
States^ although he had been in the province upwards of half 
a century^ had a good farm, an undisputed freehold, had served 
in the late war against the United States, had taken the oath of 
allegiance in 1801, and was willing to take it and all the electoral 
oaths required by the statute, but had not the certificate of his 
having taken the oath of allegiance with him ; after being thus 
rejected, he returned with his certificate of having taken the oath 
of allegiance, and a certificate of his service in the late war, and yet 
his vote was rejected by Mr Hepburn, the returning-officer, a 
commissioner for the sale of Indian lands, removeable at the 
pleasure of Sir F. B. Head, who refused even to enter Mr, 
M'^Kenzie's objections to the rejection of Mr. Wait Sweet's vote 
upon the poll book. 

I also have to observe, that the newly-created rectors of the 
church of England were, indecently, actively electioneering for 
the tory candidates, often among the crowd with their hats in 
their hands, urging on the enemies of reform, I thought this, 
my lord, the very wrong way to secure the affections of the 
people. 

And it is to be observed, that generally the state-paid priests 
and most of those persons whose salaries or offices are at the 
pleasure of Sir F. B. Head, were violent in their opposition to the 
reform candidates, either associating themselves with orange- 
men, previously secretly organized, who with clubs and other 
instruments, were menacing, threatening, and beating the quiet 
and peaceable independent reform electors, — often actually 
driving them from the polls, or they were among those outrage- 
ous partizans of Sir F. B. Head, apparently delighted with the 
violence of their party, and, it is to be observed, without one 
effort on their part to check these excesses and breaches of the 
peace ; thus indicating the source from whence this organized 
system against the freedom of election emanated, and the slight 
chance a reformer would have of obtaining legal justice for their 
injuries, or even the loss of the lives of their friends, as their 
complaints must be made to men bound together by secret 
solemn oaths, or to their violent partizans in their political strifes 
and violent outrages. 

It is also alleged that the Honourable James Crooks, a member 
of the legislative council of Upper Canada, tendered his vote. 



96 

which was received, for the tory candidates, contrary to the 
practice either in Canada or in England. 

It is further alleged that Andrew Shore, charged with felony, 
and committed to take his trial at the next assizes, was admitted 
to bail without a judge^s order by Messrs. Alderman Gumett, 
editor of the Courier^ the demi-official organ of the government, 
and Alderman Dennison, both active partizans of Sir F. B. 
Head, to enable him to vote against the reform candidate. 

These, my lord, are only a few of the many arbitrary and 
imconstitutional acts of Sir F. B. Head and his dependents, 
of which the people of Upper Canada complain, and which the 
reformers instructed me to point out to your lordship person- 
ally, and which I should have endeavoured to have done had 
your lordship afforded me an opportunity. 

I take this opportunity of entering my protest against the 
course which your lordship has adopted of refusing to grant me 
an interview, at which I should have done more justice than I 
now can to the important duty imposed on me by my fellow 
countrymen in Upper Canada. I consider the treatment which 
Mr. Baldwin and myself have met with at your lordship^s hands 
in being refused an interview, highly unjust and^oppressive, as it 
is well known that no person deputed by the tory party in 
Upper Canada was ever refused an interview in which to state 
their grievances ^ and if, my lord, we are to be treated by 
lieutenant-governors as we have been by Sir F. B. Head, and 
afterwards refused all access to the colonial minister of the 
crown when we come 4,000 miles to state our grievances, what 
justice or protection can the people of the colonies obtain against 
any oppressive and arbitrary act ? 

I enter this my protest against your lordship's conduct on 
behalf of those my countrymen who have sent me to England 
to seek redress. 

And I further complain against your lordship for refusing me 
an interview on an individual case, specially referred to your 
lordship's decision by the late lieutenant-governor and council 
of Upper Canada, although I have three times requested the 
same. 

I shall return to Upper Canada and report the treatment I 
have received, and what the expectations of my countrymen for 
Justice can be from the colonial ministers. 

I have, therefore, my lord, as the only resom^ce left, in the 



97 

name and on behalf of the reformers of Upper Canada, most 
earnestly and most confidently, yet most humbly and most 
respectfully to request, that His Majesty^s government will in- 
vestigate the manner in which the late elections in Upper 
Canada have been conducted on the part of Sir F. B. Head and 
his dependents, and all the allegations I have made in this letter, 
and in the petition presented to the house of commons by Mr. 
Hume, on the 19th of August last, by impartial and disinter- 
ested parties not belonging to the province, before your lordship 
shall decide on such unconstitutional conduct. And I request 
you to adopt such measures, in accordance with the wishes of a 
large majority of the people of the province, as shall secure to 
them the freedom of election, a cheap and responsible govern- 
ment, the regulation of their own internal affairs, the application 
by law of all the natural resources of the country to works of 
general utility and improvement, through a just, wise, and liberal 
construction of the constitution of the province, thereby pro- 
moting the mutual good offices between them and the parent 
state, inspiring and promoting a confidence in the paternal 
fostering care and protection of the mother country, and thus 
increase and confirm the attachment of His Majesty^s loyal 
subjects of Upper Canada to Great Britain, and strengthen and 
perpetuate the connection between them, that may be made 
highly beneficial to both the mother country and the colony, 

I have, &c. 
. , (Signed) CHARLES BUNCOMBE. 



Second Inclosure in No. 21. 
Sir, Downing-street, 21st September, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter to his lordship of the 20th instant, in which you 
have preferred various charges against Sir F. B. Head, the 
lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, in reference to the recent 
general election of members of the house of assembly of that 
province. 

Lord Glenelg directs me to state, for your information, that 
he proposes to avail himself of the earliest opportunity for 
transmitting a copy of that letter to Sir F. B. Head, for such 
explanations as that officer may be able to give respecting the 
matters laid by you to his charge ; in the meantime his lordship 
will, of course, suspend his opinion on the subject. He directs 



98 

me, however, to state that he cannot receire accusations of such 
a nature against a public officer of high and unblemished cha- 
racter, without recording his persuasion that they will be found 
susceptible of a satisfactory answer. 

With reference to your protest against Lord Glenelg's decision 
to carry on his communications with you, not in personal in- 
terviews, but in writing, his lordship directs me to observe, that 
the obligation of acting with strict impartiality towards all 
persons with whom he is brought into official intercourse, would 
have forbidden him to receive, in mere conversation, charges 
impugning the honour and reputation of any man, however 
humble his station in life ; nor can his lordship think that, as a 
public accuser of the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, you 
are justly entitled to complain that you have been required to 
prefer your charges in that form in which alone they could be 
expressed with precision, and subjected to the test of an exact 
inquiry. 

With regard to your application for the confirmation of your 
title to certain lands in the province to which you allude, as 
connected with the more general political questions embraced 
in your letter of the 20th instant. Lord Glenelg directs me to 
refer you to my letter of this date, conveying to you his lord- 
ship's decision on that subject. I have, &c, 
C. Buncombe, Esq. (Signed) GEORGE GREY. 



No. 22.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, SOth September, 1836. 

In the conduct of affairs in British North America, no prin- 
ciple is of more importance than the maintenance of one con- 
sistent and uniform course of policy, in the administration of the 
governments of the different provinces which comprise His 
Majesty's dominions in that quarter of the globe. It is vain to 
suppose that any concession can be made to the general as- 
sembly of any one of those provinces, and withheld from the 
rest, or that on the part of the crown any prerogative can be 
effectually asserted in one, unless it be maintained with equal 
firmness in the others. Hence the necessity of a mutual good 
understanding between the officers administering the different 
governments ; and hence, also, the importance of a free commu- 
nication between them, and especially of each being apprised^ 
as soon as possible, of any considerable measure which may be 



99 

adopted in this country with reference to any one of the pro- 
vinces in question. 

Bearing in mind these considerations^ I transmit to you. 
copies of certain despatches which I have addressed to the 
lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick. As I trust that they 
will be found to convey^ with sufficient distinctness^ an expla- 
nation of the circumstances in which they originated, and of the 
motives by which they were suggested, I enter into no further 
statement of that nature. 

You wiU find in these despatches^ not the mere general 
Bssertion, but, so far as depends on His Majesty's government, 
the practical execution, of some of the most important prin- 
ciples by which it is designed to conduct the administration of 
British North American affairs. So far as those measures are 
capable of application to Upper Canada, you will have the 
goodness to consider my instructions to Sir A. Campbell as 
addressed to yourself. In transferring them to the case of a 
different province, it is of course designed that every latitude 
should be left for their adaptation to the exigencies of the 
|)ubhc service which may be prescribed by the inherent dif- 
ferences of local circumstances. 

It has appeared to me that it would be very desirable to 
accelerate the meeting of the legislature of New Brunswick ; in 
order that the nature of the proposed arrangements, in that 
province, might be well understood in both the Canadas and in 
Nova Scotia, before the opening of the regular session of tiie general 
assemblies of those provinces. I have every reason to antici- 
pate from the legislature of New Brunswick, so distinct and 
cordial an affirmation of the great constitutional principles 
which have been controverted elsewhere, as may largely contri- 
bute towards the more easy and satisfactory settlement of the 
questions in debate in Upper and Lower Canada. It is further 
my wash that the meeting of the Upper Canadian assembly, though 
jDOstponed for some weeks after that of New Brunswick, should 
precede by an equal period, the meeting of the legislature of 
the lower province. From this arrangement, I foresee the 
advantage that in Upper Canada, in the probable temper of the 
new house of assembly, another most important declaration may 
be obtained in favour of constitutional principles, while the 
danger which may exist there of urging to a hazardous extreme, 
the recent victory over a hostile party may thus also be avoided, 

H 2 



100 

- If these expectations should be fulfilled^ Lord Gosford would 
meet the Lower Canadian assembly with advantages of which 
he might perhaps be able to make a most important use. The 
popular leaders^ perceiving that their views had been disavowed 
in the adjacent provinces, would probably approach the dis- 
cussions of the questions, which they have so long agitated, in a 
much more moderate and sober temper of mind than formerly. 

. Or if they should still persevere in the course which they 
have hitherto pursued, and thus impose on parliament the 
necessity of any direct intervention, the obstacles which have 
hitherto prevented recourse to such measures, would be very 
greatly diminished, by the public and decided adherence of the 
other British North American legislatures to a different policy. 

Although such are my own views, and although I transmit to 
Lord Gosford a counterpart of this despatch, I do not venture at 
this distance to enjoin on yourself and his lordship an exact 
compliance with them; but you will immediately enter into 
correspondence with Lord Gosford on the subject ; and unless 
you and he should concur in opinion, that it is desirable to 
pursue a different course, the meetings of the Canadian legisla- 
tures must be so regulated as to afford opportunity for the exe- 
cution of the plan which I have explained. If, on the other hand, 
you and Lord Gosford should agree in prefering a different 
order of proceeding, I shall be perfectly satisfied to yield my 
opinion to your concurrent judgment, and shall be convinced 
that it has been adopted on solid and sufficient reasons. 

- In Nova Scotia and in Prince Edward^s island, these contro- 
versies have not hitherto arisen, nor perhaps are they likely to 
grow up in those provinces. But in transmitting to the officers 
administering the government of those provinces a copy of 
this despatch, and of its inclosures, I have desired them to 
call together their respective legislatures at whatever period 
Lord Gosford may, in concurrence with you, point out to them 
as being most calculated to facilitate his lordship^s success in 
the approaching session of the general assembly of Lower 
Canada. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 

First Inclosure in No. 22. 
Lord Glenelg to Sir A, Campbell, 
Sir, Downing-streety Slst August^ 1836. 

.1 HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 



101 

obtain detailed accounts of the receipt and expenditure of the 
16th March last, No. 19, transmitting the copy of an address 
from the house of assembly of New Brunswick to His Majesty, 
on various subjects connected with the administration of pubhc 
affairs in that province. I have since received from Messrs. 
Crane and Wilmot, the gentlemen deputed by the house of 
assembly to represent them in this coimtry, the original address 
of the assembly ; and I have also been in communication with 
those gentlemen, as well on the matters to which the address 
adverts as on others connected with the colony. I inclose for 
your information copies of the correspondence which has passed 
with them. 

I have had the honour of laying at the foot of the throne the 
address of the house of assembly, and I am commanded to express 
His Majesty's satisfaction at the spirit and temper in which 
the house have framed this record of their sentiments, on sub- 
jects of great constitutional interest and importance. 

ITie assembly express their approbation of the instructions 
issued by His Majesty's commands to Sir F. Head and to the 
Canada commissioners, and state that it would afford them 
entire satisfaction if the principles which they involve were car- 
ried into operation in New Brunswick. 

It is with great pleasure that I am enabled to give the assem- 
bly the satisfaction which they desire. The principles involved 
in those instructions are not of limited apphcation -, they form 
the basis of the policy, which, in His Majesty's judgment, it is 
the wisdom of this country to pursue in reference, not only to 
the Canadas, but also to all the other states of British North 
America. 

I proceed to bring this general declaration to a practical test 
in the answers which I am commanded to return to the 
address. 

1. The first subject to which the assembly advert is the 
management of the crown estate. Their representation is in 
substance, that the powers at present confided to the commis- 
sioner of crown lands are excessive, and that the system which 
that officer, in the exercise of his discretion, has followed, has 
tended to retard the settlement and the prosperity of the 
province. But, in deference to the judgment already expressed 
by His Majesty on this subject, the assembly withdraw on the 
present occasion their claim for the entke control and manage- 
ment of the crown lands, and suggest that such control and 



i02 

management should in future be confided to the administrator 
of the provincial government and the executive council. 

The memorandum inclosed in the joint letter of Messrs. 
Crane and Wilmot^ dated the 27th instant^ will explain to you: 
the representations which those gentlemen have added on this 
part of the question. 

From my despatch of the 31st March last^ you will have 
seen that the management of the crown lands in New Bruns- 
wick has lately engaged much of my attention. Without 
stopping to inquire whether that despatch may not in some 
degree have anticipated the objections urged by the house of 
assembly, I am at once to convey to you His Majesty's 
decision on the proposed measures of amelioration. 

His Majesty is pleased to acquiesce in the suggestion, that 
the management of the crown lands should for the future be 
confided to the administrator of the government for the time 
being, aided by his executive council. In pursuance of this- 
decision, it will be your duty hereafter, in all questions relating 
to the disposal of lands or timber belonging to the crown, to- 
submit the subject for the consideration of the executive coun- 
cil, and to proceed only in conformity with the opinion of that 
council, or of a majority of its members. To the commissioner 
of crown lands, however, will still belong the duty of carrying 
into effect such measures as shall have been thus decided 
on. 

His Majesty at the same time, readily admits the right of the 
legislature of New Brunswick to pass such laws as may seem to 
them expedient for the guidance of the executive government 
in this branch of their duties. His Majesty will be at aU times 
prepared to receive, and to consider with attention, any 
suggestions or advice respecting the policy and system of 
management of the crown lands which may be offered to the 
crown by the council and assembly of New Brunswick, whether 
by addresses or in the form of legislative enactment. But as 
this is a matter in which the prerogative of the crown is imme- 
diately concerned, and as it would obviausly be inconvenient 
that any uncertainty should be introduced into the regulations 
for the disposal of crown lands, it will be indispensable that any 
act to be passed for such a purpose should contain a clause 
suspending its operation until His Majesty's pleasure respecting 
it shall have been declared. 

2, The assembly complain that they have not beeiv able to 



103 

casual and territorial revenue^ and have thus been prevented 
from making those suggestions respecting the management of 
that fund, which, by Lord Ripon^s despatch of the 2nd January, 
1833, they were invited to offer. 

It would appear, by the observation annexed by you to the 
address, that you dissent in some degree from the correctness 
of this statement. I am not, however, called on this occasion 
to examine into what is past. With respect to the future, I 
have to convey to you His Majesty's commands, that the most 
prompt attention should be paid to any addresses which may be 
presented to you by the house of assembly, for information on 
subjects connected with the receipt and expenditure of the 
casual and territorial revenue. His Majesty has no desire to 
withhold from the representatives of the people of New Bruns- 
wick any information on such points which they may consider 
necessary for their guidance; but as some misapprehension 
appears to have hitherto existed on the subject, I must direct 
that in future there be annually laid on the table of the house 
of assembly, within fourteen days from the commencement of 
their session, a detailed account of the receipts and expenditure 
of the casual and territorial revenue of the province for the year 
last past. This return must be prepared with the utmost 
clearness and precision ; and it might perhaps be possible for 
you to arrange before-hand with the assembly, the form in which 
it could be most advantageously drawn up. It is scarcely 
possible to contemplate a case in which it might be necessary to 
refuse the call of the assembly, for any information on this sub- 
ject, but should a case occur, you will not fail immediately to 
report the circumstance to me. 

3. The assembly next allude to the composition of the 
executive council. 

They recommend that the numbers of the council should be 
materially increased ; and His Majesty will take this suggestion 
into consideration, although he is not yet prepared to declare 
whether it can be carried into effect, stiU less what should be 
the extent of the proposed increase. 

The assembly further express their cordial concurrence, in 
the views of Mr. Spring Rice, relative to the summoning to that 
board of some members of the popular branch of the legislature. 

On this topic the assembly have expressed themselves with a 
just delicacy. Declaring their approbation of Mr. Spring Rice's 



104 

despatch, they yet disclaim any wish to oiFer an opinion to the 
King as to the persons whom His Majesty may he pleased to 
call to fill seats in the executive council. It is obvious, indeed, 
that a peremptory rule on the subject would be inadmissible. 
At present it is open to the crown, at its o\Yn discretion, to select 
miembers for the executive council from all descriptions of His 
Majestys subjects. The prerogative is unfettered, and it is, in 
the opinion of His Majesty's advisers, most advantageous for 
all parties that so it should remain. With respect to the manner 
in which it shall., in this branch of it, be exercised. His Majesty 
can give only the general assurance, which he directs me ta 
convey to the house of assembly, that his selection of persons 
to sit in the executive council, will be guided solely by a reference 
to the permanent interests of the province, and to the qualifi- 
cations of those whose names may be submitted to him for that 
distinction, 

4. The composition of the legislative council is the next sub- 
ject alluded to by the house. Admitting that no great public 
evil has yet arisen from this source, they nevertheless express 
their apprehension, that, according to the principles laid down 
in the instructions to the Canada commissioners, those members 
of the council who hold ofiice under the cro\^Ti could not be 
expected to exercise an unbiassed judgment on the questions 
which might come before them. His Majesty's ministers entirely 
agree in the importance of securing the independence of the 
legislative council; they are not indeed prepared, especially after 
the candid admission of the assembly as to the working of the 
present system, to recommend to His Majesty the supersession 
of any of the present members of the council, nor do they con- 
sider ofiice as of itself a disqualification for a seat in the council; 
but they freely admit that the introduction into it of too large a 
number of persons holding places of emolument, under the 
executive government, would tend to detract from its weight as 
an independent branch of the colonial legislature. Lord Ripon, 
in a despatch, dated the 1st May, 1832, observes, that '^'^ the 
legislative council should principally consist of gentlemen inde- 
pendent of, and unconnected with, the executive government, 
and selected from the principal inhabitants of the province, and 
those having the greatest stake in its welfare." To this 
principle, although it would seem that accidental circumstances 
have hitherto prevented it from being carried into full efiect. 



105 

His Majesty's government continue to adhere. Whenever 
therefore it may become your duty to recommend to me^ for 
His Majesty's approbation^ the name of any gentleman to be 
appointed a member of the legislative council^ you will bear in 
mind the rule laid down by Lord Ripon, in the words which I 
have just quoted. 

It may be proper to advert in this place to the impression 
which has been produced on the minds of the assembly by those 
clauses of the instructions to Sir Francis Head^ ^^ which'' (to 
use their own language) " might be supposed to affect the inde- 
pendence of members of the legislature holding any inferior 
office^ or appointment under the government." On this subject 
it is enough to point out to the observation of the assembly, 
that the clauses in question, in so far as they concern persons 
holding seats in either house, have reference expressly to 
^^ members of the local government ;" not to inferior officers, but 
to those who form an actual portion of the executive govern- 
ment, and whose cordial sympathy and co-operation are abso- 
lutely indispensable to the existence of any system of adminis- 
tration. With regard to such individuals, I trust the assembly 
will admit the justice of the observation which concludes the 
consideration of this topic in the instructions to Sir Francis 
Head : — '^ Unless this course be pursued, it would be impossible 
to rescue the head of the government from the imputation of 
insincerity, or to conduct the administration of public affairs 
with the necessary firmness and decision." 

5. I now come to the application of the assembly for the 
surrender to them of all the revenues, at the disposal of the 
crown, in the province, including the payments of the Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick Land Company, in return for a 
civil list, to be granted for a period, either of ten years or 
permanently. 

After a due consideration of the circumstances of the case, I 
have to inform you, that, subject to two qualifications to be 
subsequently noticed. His Majesty has been graciously pleased 
to consent to this application of the assembly. The two qualifi- 
cations to which I refer are the following : — 

First. The appropriation of the house of assembly is to 
be exercised, not over the gross, but over the net amount of 
the revenue to be placed under their control. The proper and 
moderate charges incident to the collection and management of 



106 

that revenue will continue to be defrayed as at jDresent ; but an 
account of those charges will be included in the statements 
respecting the casual and territorial revenue, which, in a former 
part of this despatch, I have directed to be annually submitted 
to the house of assembly. I need scarcely add, that His Majesty 
would at all times be prepared to devote the most attentive con- 
sideration to every suggestion from either branch of the legis- 
lature, with respect to the amount of the charges of collection. 

Secondly. The second qualification has for its object, to pre- 
clude questions which might otherwise arise as to the manner 
in which the right of appropriation is to be exercised by the 
house of assembly. His Majesty proposes that the law and 
customs of parliament, and more especially the established 
usages of the house of commons, with regard to the appropriation 
of the surplus of the consolidated fund of Great Britain and 
Ireland, shall be assumed by the legislature of New Brunswick, 
and more especially by the house of general assembly, as afford- 
ing the rule for their guidance in the appropriation of the re- 
venues of that province. Some exceptions may unavoidably 
arise out of peculiar local circumstances, forbidding a perfect 
coincidence in the two systems, which however, subject to those 
exceptions, would be precisely similar. 

In regard to the amount of the civil list to be granted by the 
house of assembly, I am to inform you, that His Majesty will be 
willing to accept the sum of 14,000/. sterling, that being the 
sum originally demanded by Lord Stanley. In determining 
this part of the question I have not overlooked the fact, that in 
Lord Stanley^s despatch of 30th September, 1833, it was not 
distinctly stated whether the sum which he named as the 
amount of the civil list, was calculated in sterling or in current 
money. But any doubts which might otherwise exist on this 
point, must be at once decided by the schedule attached to his 
despatch, wherein are recited the services, amounting in all to 
14,000/. sterhng, to which he proposed to appropriate the civil 
list. 

If, therefore, a bill should be passed by the provincial parlia- 
ment, and presented to you, having for its object the securing 
to His Majesty of a civil list amounting to 14,000/. sterling per 
annum, either for the space of ten years or permanently, you 
will reserve it for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure ; 
and you will not, in the meantime, consider yourself at liberty to 



107 

apply any portion of the cttsual and territorial revenue to ser- 
vices which have not already received the express sanction of 
His Majesty^s government. 

The following are the services to which^ in the event of its 
being granted, it is intended in the first instance to apply this 
sum : viz. 



Salary of Lieutenant-governor 

Chief Justice - - - 

Three puisne Judges 
Attorney-general - - - 
Solicitor-general _ - - 
Colonial-secretary - - - 
Private secretary - - - 
Commissioner of crown lands - 
Establishment of ditto _ _ - 

Salary of Auditor _ _ - - 

Receiver-general _ - - 
Scotch Minister 
Emigration Agent, St. John's - 
Annuity to late Surveyor-general 
College - - - - - - 

Indians ------ 



£13,393 

After defraying these charges there wilt still remain a surplus 
of 60 7/. sterling, applicable to any incidental expenses for 
which no provision shall have been previously made. You will 
however of course understand, that, in thus pointing out the 
offices of which the salaries are to be paid out of this fund. His 
Majesty does not preclude himself from the revision of those 
salaries at a future date. In the case of some of them, indeed, 
it has been already announced to you by my predecessors that 
reductions will be made on the occurrence of vacancies ; and it 
is probable therefore that the surplus may hereafter exceed the 
sum which I have stated. In anticipation of that event. His 
Majesty directs me to announce, that, whatever the amount of 
that surplus may hereafter be, it will be applied exclusively to 
objects connected with the province, and with a view solely to 
pubhc interests, and an account of it will be annually laid before 
the house of assembly. 



£ 


s. 


d. 


3,500 








950 








1,950 








550 








200 








1,430 








200 








1,750 








909 








300 








300 








50 








100 








150 








1,000 








54 









lOS 

It has been suggested, that as the quit rents were included 
among the revenues which, accordingly to Lord Stanley's pro- 
posal, would have been given up to the assembly, so among the 
revenues to be surrendered under the arrangement now under 
consideration, should be included the sum granted in the session 
of 1835, in commutation of the quit rents. To this suggestion. 
His Majesty sees no reason to object, and he would therefore 
not be disposed to withhold his assent from any act which 
might be passed by the provincial legislature for the purpose of 
repealing the quit rent commutation act of 1835. 

In closing this communication, I am commanded to express 
the satisfaction with which His Majesty has felt himself enabled 
to decide on the various particulars to which it refers. This 
gracious attention on the part of His Majesty, to the wishes of 
his faithful subjects in New Brunswick wiU, the King has no 
doubt, be received by them as a fresh proof of the interest 
which he takes in their weKare, and of his solicitude to promote 
the development of the great and manifold resources of that 
portion of the British empire. 

I have, &c. 
Sir A. Campbell (Signed) GLENELG. 

&c. &c. &c. 



Second Inclosure in No. 22. 
Lord Glenelg to Sir A. Campbell. 
Sir, Downing-street^ 5th September, 1836. 

In my despatch of the 31st ultimo, I have communicated to 
you the answer which His Majesty has commanded me to 
return to the address from the house of assembly of New 
Brunswick of the 14th March last. I have at the same time 
inclosed for your information, copies of the correspondence 
which had passed on the subject of that address, and on other 
matters of a public nature between this department and Messrs^ 
Crane and Wilmot, the gentlemen deputed by the house of 
assembly to represent them in this country. Having commu- 
nicated to Messrs. Crane and Wilmot the draft of my despatch 
of the 31st ultimo, I have received from them the inclosed 
observations upon it. I have also had with them personal 
communications on the subject. I now proceed to inform you 
in what respects His Majesty has in consequence been pleased 



109 

to direct that the instructions contained in my despatch of 31st 
ultimo, shall be altered or modified. 

1. The first alteration proposed by Messrs. Crane and Wilmot 
is, that the executive council should, in compliance with the 
wishes of the assembly, be at once enlarged, without waiting 
the further deliberation contemplated in my despatch of the 
31st ultimo. On this point. His Majesty, after a due considera- 
tion of the arguments urged by the house of assembly, and of 
the representations of Messrs. Crane and Wilmot, is prepared 
to adopt the necessary steps for meeting the wishes of the 
assembly. It is unnecessary, on the present occasion, to offer 
any pledge as to the precise number of which the executive 
council should hereafter consist ; nor indeed could an invariable 
rule be prescribed on that subject without inconvenience. But 
you will immediately report to me the names of several gentle- 
men whom you may think most eligible for seats in His 
Majesty's executive council. In making your selection, you 
will not confine yourself to any single class or description of 
persons, but will endeavour to ensure the presence in the 
council, of gentlemen representing all the various interests 
which exist in the province, and possessing at the same time 
the confidence of the people at large. It may not be possible 
always to find such persons in the neighbourhood of the capital, 
but I am assured that there are gentlemen of fortune in the 
province who, if appointed to the council, would, from public 
motives, attend to the duty. 

2. The instructions respecting the regulation of the land 
department are next alluded to, and much stress is laid on 
the expediency of permitting you to give your assent at once to 
any acts which may be passed by the legislature for that pur- 
pose, instead of reserving them for the signification of His 
Majesty^s pleasure. I must, however, remark, that whatever 
advantages might accrue from this course, they could scarcely 
compensate for the inconvenience which might result from a 
disallowance, should that be necessary, of such acts, after they 
have gone into operation. It would be superfluous to enlarge 
on the hardships which might be produced by the annulling of 
an act under which property had been already acquired or 
devised, or to point out how much the disappointment created by' 
such a proceeding, must exceed that which would result from a 
temporary delay in the confirmation of the act. There is. 



no 

however^ an alternative, which, while it would guard effectually 
against the inconvenience just stated, would at the same 
time, I have reason to think, be satisfactory to the assembly. 
And this is, that no act for the regulation of the land depart- 
ment shall come into operation till at a given period after its 
passing. If, therefore, any act of that nature, presented to you 
hereafter, shall contain a clause providing that it shall not come 
into operation till the expiration of at least four months from 
its date, you will be at liberty, should you see no objection to 
the act on other grounds, to give your assent to it. In such a 
case, I need hardly state, that it will be your duty immediately 
to transmit the act to me, in order that it may be brought 
under the consideration of His Majesty in council. 

3. With respect to the surrender of the casual and territo- 
rial revenue, I have to observe, that in proposing that the 
net proceeds only should be paid over to the provincial trea- 
sury. His Majesty^s government made no claim which is not in 
strict accordance with the law and practice of this country. 
The hereditary revenues of the crown have been placed at the 
disposal of parliament. Parliament has in turn confided to the 
executive government the powers and the duty of determining, 
in the first instance, whatever relates to the expense of manage- 
ment and collection, subject to the obligation of rendering an 
annual account of that expense. It is obvious that if the legis- 
lature should assume the right of predetermining the various 
items of that expenditure, they would be virtually invested with 
the entire management of the territory itself, and must exercise 
a power which has never been placed in this country in any 
other hands than those of the executive government. To 
depart from the established usage in this respect, would be to 
subvert the existing balance of the constitution, and to place 
powers of the greatest importance in hands not subject to any 
effective responsibihty. 

I propose, therefore, that as in Great Britain the cession of 
the hereditary revenue was accompained by an enactment which 
enabled the lords of the treasury to fix, in the first instance, all 
the charges of collection and management, so in New Brunswick 
the cession of the corresponding revenue to the appropriation 
of the general assembly should be accompanied by an act 
a\ithorizing the governor of the province, with the advice of his 
executive council, to expend out of the gross income whatever 



Ill 

sums they may find necessary for the management and collection 
of that revenue. And as in Great Britain the house of com- 
mons^ by exercising its judgment on the accounts of the expen- 
diture which are always laid before it^ has in effect a sufficient 
and constitutional control over that expenditure_, so in New 
Brunswick the same control over the revenues in question would, 
by the same means, be vested in the house of assembly. 

The assurance which you have been directed to convey to the 
house of assembly, that accounts of the receipt and expenditure 
of that revenue shall be annually laid before them, and that His 
Majesty will be ever ready to devote the most attentive con- 
sideration to any suggestions from either branch of the legislature, 
in regard to the expense of collection, appear to afford a guarantee 
against any unnecessary disbursements for that service; but there 
would be no objection to confirm that assurance by a positive 
enactment. 

4. Messrs. Crane and Wiimot next advert to the amount 
of the civil list, and suggest that the sum of 15,000/. currency, 
should be substituted for that of 14,000/. sterling. Although it 
has not been in my power to advise His Majesty to accede 
altogether to this suggestion, I am yet of opinion, after adverting 
to the arguments urged by those gentlemen, both in their 
written communications and in conversation, that some modi- 
fication of the proposition contained in my despatch of the 31st 
ult. may be advantageously made. Among the items therein 
specified as permanent charges on the civil list, is the sum of 
909/. for the establishment of the commissioner of crown lands. 
This item was inserted in conformity with the scheme contem- 
plated by Lord Stanley in 1833 : but there appears to be no 
sufficient reason why the expenses of the in-door establishment 
of the commissioner of crown lands should not be defrayed in 
the same manner as all other expenses incurred for the manage- 
ment of the crown estate, and the collection of the revenue 
arising from it. This charge, therefore, being deducted from 
the civil list. His Majesty will be ready to accept the sum of 
14,500/. currency, in exchange for the casual and territorial 
revenue, instead of the sum of 14,000/. sterling, demanded in my 
despatch of the 31st ult. I cannot doubt that the assembly, 
considering the large and growing revenue to be given up to 
their control in return for this sum, will cheerfully agree to the 
terms offered to them by His Majesty^s government. 



112 

The sum of 14^500/. currency, would, I presume, be equal 
to 13,0507. sterling, and there would, therefore, remain an im- 
mediate surplus of 5661. sterling, which will of course be here- 
after increased by reductions in the amount of the salaries at 
present borne on the civil list. Among the objects to which it 
is my purpose to devote a portion of this surplus, is the institu- 
tion of an efficient office of audit within the province, for all the 
revenues raised and expended in it. I am of course aware that 
at present it is the custom of the house of assembly to appoint, 
from time to time, committees of their body^ to whom are referred 
such financial returns as are laid on their table, and who in fact 
exercise the power of auditing the accounts specified in such 
returns. It is far from my intention to undervalue the labours of 
these committees, or to question the advantage which must 
accrue to the public service from the rigid supervision by the 
representatives of the people, of the expenditure of the executive 
government ; but, at the same time, committees of a popular 
body are but an inadequate substitute for a permanent and re- 
sponsible officer, whose sole duty it would be to inspect the 
accounts of public departments. The experience and practical 
skill, the intimate and continuous knowledge of official transac- 
tions, which are necessarily acquired by such an officer, give 
him many advantages over any fluctuating body. It is also to 
be observed that the appointment of an auditor, immediately 
responsible to His Majesty, is more consistent with the consti- 
tution and practice of this kingdom than the consigning of the 
duty of examining the public accounts altogether to the repre- 
sentatives of the people. The office of auditor, as at present 
constituted in New Brunswick, is, I apprehend, insuffi^cient for 
tbe duties which I have here proposed to devolve on it. I have 
therefore to desire that you will bring this subject under the 
notice of the council and of the house of assembly, and request 
them respectively to furnish me with a report on it, specifying, 
among other points, what should be the amount of remuneration 
to be conferred on the officer at the head of the proposed 
department. On receiving that report, I shall lose no time in 
communicating with the lords commissioners of the treasury, 
and in preparing, in concert with them, the necessary arrange- 
ments for the institution and regulation of the office. 

It is to be understood that I by no means propose or con- 
template that the officer so appointed should supersede the 



113 

labours of the committees of the house of assembly. Those 
committees will_, if the house think fit^ continue their inquiries 
exactly as they do at present ; nor will the auditor in any degree 
impede or interfere with their proceedings ; indeed it will be 
always in the power of the house to obviate any such consequence. 
5. The last subject noticed in the inclosed memorandum^ is 
the scale of salaries of public officers, and it is proposed that the 
reductions to be made in these salaries on the occurrence of va- 
canciesj should be distinctly specified in the despatch to you. 
It is also stated to be the opinion of the house of assembly, that 
no officer in the province, except the Heutenant-governor, should 
receive a larger salary than the chief justice or a puisne judge of 
the supreme court. I am fully alive to the importance of the 
subject thus brought under my notice, but adverting to the 
rapid changes which are taking place in New Brunswick, and to 
the length of time which may possibly elapse before an oppor- 
tunity occurs for revising the offices of which the emoluments 
are borne on the proposed civil list, I am of opinion that it 
would not be convenient at the present time to pledge His Ma- 
jesty^s government to the specific amount of remuneration which 
shall hereafter, and perhaps under altered circumstances, be at- 
tached to those offices ; at the same time I am anxious to insti- 
tute a course of inquiries calculated to prepare materials for a 
final and well-considered judgment on the subject. With this 
view, I desire to receive from yourself, and from the legislative 
council and the house of assembly respectively, reports pointing 
out the amount of emoluments, which in your opinion, would 
constitute an adequate remuneration for each of the offices in 
question. It is of course understood, that during the tenure of the 
present officers, their existing emoluments shall be preserved to 
them, but whenever vacancies shaU occur. His Majesty^s govern- 
ment will consider what reduction should be made in those emolu- 
ments, and will devote their serious attention to the statements 
which I have now invited, in the hope that they may be able at 
once to effect a considerable saving in the public expenditure, 
without impairing in any degree, the efficiency of the respective 
offices. It must, moreover, be distinctly intimated to every 
officer, who may hereafter be temporarily appointed to any of the 
situations of which the salaries are borne on the civil list, that 
should such temporary appointment be subsequently confirmed, 
the emoluments of the office will nevertheless be subject to revi- 



114 

sion and reduction^ and that no claim to compensation for loss 
of salary will have been created by the discharge of the duties 
ad interim. With respect^ however^ to the office of lieutenant- 
governor, I am to observe, that it has been already determined^ 
on the occurrence of the next vacancy, to reduce the salary 
attached to it to £3,000 steriing per annum. Below that sum, 
it could, I think, scarcely be reduced, consistently with the rank 
and dignity which the lieutenant-governor is required to main- 
tain as His Majesty^s representative. 

. I have now gone through all the points mentioned in the in- 
closed memorandum; but before I conclude this despatch I 
must advert to a topic w^hich has been pressed on my attention 
by Messieurs Crane and Wilmot. It has been stated, that by 
the stipulation that the net proceeds only of the casual and 
territorial revenue should be ceded to the assembly, an almost 
unlimited power of expenditure, for purposes connected wdth the 
management of the crow^n estate, still remains in the hands of 
the executive government. In order to prevent any abuse of 
this power, it is proposed that an instruction should be given 
to you, that, on the presentation of an address to you from the 
assembly, expressing their disapprobation of any expenditure 
then actually in progress, you should suspend the progress of 
such expenditure until the King's government at home shall have 
an opportunity of deciding on the propriety or impropriety of 
continuing it. To this proposition I have felt myself unable, 
for several reasons, to assent ; but I have informed Messieurs 
Crane and Wilmot, that, on the occurrence of the event w^hich 
they have contemplated, you will receive with all the weight due 
to the opinion of the representatives of the people, any address 
which might be presented to you by the assembly, and that you 
would be instructed to lay that address before your executive 
council, and to receive their opinions on the subject of it before 
taking any decisive step, and it would be, moreover, your duty 
in such a case, immediately to report the circumstances to me, 
with a full explanation of the grounds on which your ultimate 
decision shall have proceeded. 

Such are the modifications of my despatch of the 31st ult., 
which, after a full consideration of the subject. His Majesty's 
ministers have felt themselves at liberty to recommend to His 
Majesty, while they regret their inability to proceed to the full 
extent of the wishes of Messieurs Crane and Wilmot, they are 



115 

yet persuaded that tlie liberal spirit in which His Majesty's 
answer to the address of the house has been conceived^, will 
sufficiently indicate the anxiety of His Majesty to accede, as far 
as is compatible with public interests, to their wishes on matters 
connected with the administration of the provincial government^ 
The diiFerences of opinion that may still remain in some parti- 
culars between the views of the assembly and those adopted in 
this country, are perfectly compatible with the existence of a 
sincere and single desire on both sides to consult only the per- 
manent well-being of the province, and cannot therefore, it is 
trusted, impede the satisfactory settlement of the questions 
mooted in tlie address of the assembly of the 14th of last 
March. I have, &c. 

Sir A. Campbell. (Signed) GLENELG. 

&c. &c. &c. 



Third Inclosure in No. 22. 

Lo7^d Glenelg to Sir A. Campbell, 

Sir, Downing-street, lOth September, 1836. 

With reference to my despatches of the 31st ult., and of the 
5 th inst., explanatory of the arrangements into which it is pro- 
posed to enter with the legislature of New Brunswick, it has 
appeared to His Majesty's government necessary that measures 
should be taken for holding a session of that legislature mth the 
least possible delay. Considerations applying, not to New 
Brunswick alone, but to the other British North American pro- 
vinces also, require that no time should be lost in giving general 
publicity to the proposals which you are authorized to make. 
You will therefore take the necessary measures for convening 
the general assembly for the despatch of business immediately 
on your receipt of this despatch. 

On the meeting of the legislature you will by a message com- 
municate to the legislative council and to the assembly, copies 
of my despatches of the 31st August and of the 5th September. 
It is my wish that no needless reserve should be practised on 
this occasion. The views explained in those despatches having 
been maturely adopted, after a full and careful investigation, it is 
desirable that they should be fully known and clearly developed 
to the legislative bodies of New Brunswick, and, through them, 
to the legislatures of the other British North American pro- 
vinces. 

I 2 



]]6 

In one respect the arrangements announced in the despatches 
just referred to are defective ; they do not comprise any detailed 
explanation of the provisions of the act to be made for securing 
the civil list^ and for the regulation of the sale of the crown 
lands. I am yet engaged in correspondence with Messieurs 
Crane and Wilmot on those topics, and some time may possibly 
elapse before I can settle with those gentlemen what are the 
precise terms in which those laws ought to be drawn up ; you 
will not, however, postpone on that account the meeting of the 
legislature, or the communications which are to be made to 
them. The general principles may be considered and agreed 
upon by the two houses, without reference to the more minute 
details. Indeed, I have entered upon the discussion of those 
details, not as thinking that additional task indispensable, but 
because I wish, as far as possible, to reheve you from an irksome 
responsibility, by rendering your instructions precise and definite 
in every respect. 

You will further observe, that it is my wish and instruction 
that you should act, and require the public officers of the pro- 
vince to act, in the spirit^of those despatches, from the time of 
your receiving them, and even before they can be communicated 
to the legislature. Thus, for example, you will direct the sur- 
veyor-general, and the commissioner of crown lands, to conform 
himseK immediately to the principles laid down for the guidance 
of his department, abstaining from selling lands in any large 
lots, or from doing any other act which there may be sufficient 
reason to conclude will be prohibited by law, so soon as the 
arrangements contemplated on that subject shall have been 
reduced into the form of a legislative act. You will, in short, 
execute the instructions contained in those despatches in the 
spirit in which they were written, that is, in the most perfect 
candour and good faith, regarding them, not as concessions 
reluctantly made by His Majesty^s government, but as measures 
which they regard as conducive, if not essential, to the welfare 
of the province, and to the maintenance of a good understand- 
ing between the inhabitants of New Brunswick and the parent 
state. 

I have, &c. 
Sir A. Campbell (Signed) GLENELG. 

&C. &G. &C. 



117 

No. 2^.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-streety 4th October, 1836. 

I HAVE received your despatch dated the 20th of August 
last^ No. 69^ in which you request that authority may instantly 
be sent to you^ firsts to make such alteration in the land-grant- 
ing system as^ upon mature consideration, you may think neces- 
sary ; and, secondly, to dispose, if required, of such portions of 
the mihtary reserves as appear, by the report of the command- 
ing engineer, not to be required for military purposes. 

On the second of these proposals I can express no opinion 
until I shall have received the report, which I have requested 
the master-general and the board of ordnance to make to me 
respecting it. On the first of them I have to make the following 
remarks : — 

If I am to understand this expression in the full sense which 
the words, unattended by any explanation, would convey, then 
I must unavoidably decline to accede to it. It is indispensable 
that the conduct of His Majesty's government respecting the 
alienation of unsettled lands should be guided by the same 
general rules in every part of British North America. There 
are also certain principles on that subject, to the observance of 
which the faith of the crown is pledged in the most solemn 
manner^ not in Upper Canada only, but in all the adjacent pro- 
vinces. Amongst these I may mention the following : — that 
the wild lands of the crown shall not hereafter be the subject of 
gratuitous donation ; that they shall not be alienated, except by 
open sales by public auction at a fair upset price ; that what- 
ever relates to the management of this branch of the public 
business shall be confided to the executive government ; that 
nevertheless. His Majesty will concur with the local legislature 
in the enactment of all necessary laws for defining the general 
rules, by which the executive government must be guided in 
their execution of this duty ; that from the gross proceeds of 
these sales, the executive government may deduct the charges 
of management and collection, on condition of rendering an 
annual account of those charges to the house of assembly ; and 
that, provided a regular charge for the support of the civil 
government of the colony be by law established, the net pro- 
ceeds of the sales of crown lands are to bejpaid into the public 
treasury, and are not to be issued from it, except in pursuance 
of some act of the local legislature to be passed for that purpose. 



118 

To impart to you any authority for altering the land-granting 
system^ in such a manner as to infringe any one of these prin- 
ciples^ would be to retract His Majesty's public and solemn 
engagements. i 

What authority it is possible for me to convey to you within 
those limits I must confess that I cannot perceive. ■ 

You urge me to invest you with the most ample discretionary 
power^ with a view to enable you to demonstrate by facts rather 
than by arguments, that a triumph of constitutional over repub- 
lican principles in a British colony is productive of good to the 
country ; and, if I correctly understand the subsequent passages 
of your despatch, the specific good end to which you desire to 
make the recent elections subservient, is that of increasing the 
facilities and encouragements to emigrants to settle in Upper 
Canada, thus destroying the weight of those invidious contrasts 
which have been drawn between the system of the United States 
and our own, and in favour of republican to the prejudice of 
monarchical institutions. The importance of this end, and the 
wisdom of pursuing it steadfastly, are too clear for discussion ; 
and such is my conviction of your zeal for the King's service, 
and of your ability to promote it, that if His Majesty's govern- 
ment were unfettered by any positive pledges, and if it were 
possible to act on diiFerent systems in the different provinces of 
British North America, I should be much disposed to refer the 
selection of the means to your own judgment. Within the 
limits which I have already pointed out, I cheerfully admit that 
the more ample your discretion the greater will be my hopes of 
success ; and if in legislating on the question, the council and 
assembly should concur in imparting to you large discretionary 
powers. His Majesty would be happy to give his sanction to 
laws of that nature ; but the principle, that the land-granting 
system is to be made the subject of local legislation, is beyond 
the reach of debate. 

I havcj &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 24.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Doivning-street, 3\st October, 1836. 

From the papers which accompanied my confidential despatch 
of the 30th ultimo, you will have perceived that I was then en- 
gaged with the delegates from the assembly of New Brunswick, 



119 

in discussing the provisions of the bill for securing the civil list 
which it is proposed to grant to His Majesty in that province. 

I now transmit to you a copy of that bill^ as it has met with 
the concurrence of Messrs. Crane and Wilmot, and received the 
sanction of His Majesty's government. I also inclose a copy of 
the despatch^ with which I have accompanied its transmission 
to Sir A. Campbell. These papers will complete the corres- 
pondence which I have already forwarded to you on the subject, 
and you will have the goodness to consider them as supplemen- 
tary to my confidential instructions of the 30th ultimo. 

I have^ &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



First Inclosure in No. 24, 

New Brunsw^ick. 

A Bill/or the support of the Civil Government in thi^ Province, 

Whereas His most Gracious Majesty has been pleased to 
signify to his faithful commons of New Brunswick^ that His 
Majesty will surrender up to their control and disposal the 
proceeds of all His ^lajesty's hereditary, territorial, and casual 
revenues, and of all His Majesty's woods, mines, and royalties, 
now in hand, or which may hereafter, during the continuance 
of this act, be collected, in this province, on a sufficient sum 
being secured to His Majesty, his heirs and successors, for the 
support of the civil government in this province : and whereas 
we, His Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the commons 
of New Brunswick, in general assembly convened, with hearts 
full of the warmest duty and gratitude, are desirous that ample 
and liberal provision should be made for the expenses of the 
said civil government, during the continuance of this act, by 
charges on all and every of the revenues, now and hereafter ta 
be levied and collected in this province, have therefore freely 
and unanimously resolved to give and grant unto His 
Majesty King William the Fourth, his heirs and successors, a 
certain sum for the aforesaid expenses of the civil government, 
payable out of the joint revenues of this province : 

Be it therefore enacted by his Excellency the lieutenant- 
governor, legislative council, and assembly, and by the authority 
of the same, that the proceeds of all and every the said heredi- 
tary, territorial, and casual revenues, and the proceeds of all 



120 

sales and leases of crown lands_, woods^ mines, and royalties, 
which have been collected, and are now in hand, or which shall 
be collected hereafter, during the continuance of this act (except 
the monies, which shall be expended in the collection and pro- 
tection thereof, as specially authorized and provided for by the 
fourth section of this act), shall immediately be payable and 
paid to the provincial treasurer, who is hereby authorized to 
receive the same, for the use of this province ; and from and 
after the expiration of this act, the proceeds of all the said 
hereditary, territorial, and casual revenues, and of the said lands, 
woods, mines, and royalties, shall revert to and be payable, and 
paid to his said Majesty, his heirs and successors. 

2. And be it enacted, that there shall be granted to His 
Majesty, his heirs and successors, for and during the whole 
period of the continuance of this act, the clear yearly sum of 
£14,500, current and lawful money of this province, and that 
the said sum shall be charged on and made payable out of the 
afore-mentioned, and aU other revenues raised, collected, and 
paid into the treasury of this province ; and shall commence 
from and immediately after the 31st day of December, now last 
past, and to be paid by the said treasurer, by warrant under the 
hand and seal of his Excellency the lieutenant-governor, or com- 
mander-in-chief for the time being, with preference to aU other 
charges or payments which have heretofore been, or which shall 
hereafter be made upon or payable from the said revenues, such 
payments to be made quarterly (that is to say), on the 31st 
day of March, the 30th day of June, the 30th day of September, 
and the 31st day of December in each and every year, by equal 
and even portions, out of the monies in the said treasury ; the 
first charge for the same to be made on the quarter day next 
immediately after the passing of this act, and to include the 
proportion of the said sum which may become due, for the 
support of the said civil government, by the said quarter day. 

3. And be it enacted, that all the monies which shall be 
paid to the provincial treasurer, under and by virtue of this act, 
except the said sum of £14,500 hereby granted, shall remain in 
the treasury until appropriated, or disposed of by an act or acts 
of the general assembly of this province to be passed for that 
purpose. 

4. And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for 
his Excellency the lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief 



121 

for the time being, by and with the advice of the executive 
council, to expend out of the gross proceeds of the said here- 
ditary, territorial, and casual revenues, and of the said sales and 
leases of crown lands, woods, mines, and royalties, such sums 
of money as they may from time to time deem necessary and 
requisite for the prudent management, protection, and collec- 
tion of the said revenue ; and that his Excellency the lieutenant- 
governor and commander-in-chief for the time being shall, within 
fourteen days next after the commencement of each and every 
session of the legislature, cause to be laid before the assembly a 
full and detailed account, stating all the particulars of the income 
and expenditure of and relating to the said hereditary, territorial 
and casual revenues, sales, and leases of crown lands, woods, 
mines, and royalties, with all vouchers to the same apper- 
taining, for the then previous year. 

5. And be it enacted, that all and every grant, lease, or 
other assurance which, during the continuance of this act, shall 
be made or granted by His Majesty, his heirs or successors, of 
any lands, tenements, rents, woods, mines, royalties, revenues, 
or other hereditaments within this province, now belonging or 
hereafter to belong to His Majesty, his heirs or successors, 
whereby any estate or interest whatsoever, in law or equity, 
shall or may pass from His Majesty, his heirs, or successors, 
save and except as hereinafter provided, shall be utterly void 
and of none effect, unless such grant, lease, or assurance be 
made, upon sale or rent, to the highest bidder at public auction 
in this province, due notice having been first given thereof in 
the Royal Gazette, and unless all such sums of money and rents 
as may be payable in consideration of such grant, lease, or 
assurance be made payable to His Majesty, his heirs, or succes- 
sors, during the whole term or time of the continuance thereof 
respectively. 

6. And be it enacted, that nothing in this act contained 
shall extend or be construed to extend in anywise to impair or 
affect any rights or powers of control, management, or direction 
which have been or may be exercised, by the authority of the 
crown or other lawful warrant, relative to any suits or proceedings 
for the recovery of the said hereditary, territorial, casual, and 
other revenues, or to compositions made or to be made on 
account of any of the same, or to any remission, mitigation, or 
pardon of any penalties, fines, or forfeitures incurred or to be 



122 

incurred, or to any other lawful act, matter, or thing which has 
been or may be done, touching the said hereditary, casual, terri- 
torial, or other revenues, or to disable His Majesty, his heirs 
and successors, to make any grant or restitution of any estate 
or estates, or of the produce thereof, to w^hich His Majesty 
hath or shall become entitled by escheat for want of heirs, or by 
reason of any forfeiture, or by reason of the same having been 
purchased by or for the use of any alien, or to make any grant 
or distribution of any personal property, and devolved to the 
crown by reason of the want of next of kin or personal repre- 
sentatives of any deceased person ; and that the said rights and 
powers shall continue to be used, exercised, and enjoyed in as 
full, free, ample, and effectual manner, to all intents and 2-)ur- 
poses, as if this act had not been made, and as the same have 
or might have been heretofore enjoyed by the crown, subject, 
nevertheless, to the restrictions and regulations hereinbefore 
made and provided : it being the true intent and meaning of 
this act, that the said rights and powers shall not be in any 
degree abridged or restrained or affected in any manner whatso- 
ever, but only that the monies arising from the full and free 
exercise and enjoyment of them, so subject as aforesaid, shall, 
during the continuance of this act, be carried to and made part 
of the joint revenues at the disposal of the general assembly of 
this province. 

7. And be it further enacted and declared, that nothing in 
this act contained shall operate to annul or prejudice any sale, 
purchase, grant, lease, enfranchisement, exchange, contract, rent- 
charge, agreement, bond, mortgage, security, exoneration, or 
other act, matter, or thing relating to the said lands, woods, 
mines, or royalties which at the time of passing this act, shall have 
been made, done, given, effected, or created, but the same shall 
remain as good, valid, and effectual for the benefit or security 
either of His Majesty, his heirs or successors, or of any of the 
parties to, or with whom or in whose favour any such sale, grant, 
lease, enfranchisement, exchange, contract, rent-charges, agree- 
ment, bond, mortgage, security, exoneration, or other act, 
matter, or thing shall have been made, done, given, effected, or 
created, and be of as full force and virtue as if this act had not 
been passed. 

8. And be it further enacted, that this act shall continue 
and be of full force and effect for and daring the full and com- 



123 

plete term of ten years^ commencing from and immediately 
after the 31st day of December^ in the year 183 last past. 



Second Inciosm'e in No. 24. 
Sir, Bovming-street, 31 5/ October, 

In my despatch of the 10th of September, I apprised you 
that I was engaged in corresponding with Messrs. Crane and 
Wilmot on the provisions of the act for securing the civil list, 
which it is proposed to grant to His Majesty in New Bruns- 
wick. I now inclose for your information, a copy of that bill, 
which has been prepared in concurrence ^vith the lords commis- 
sioners of His Majesty^s treasury. It is compiled from the 
corresponding acts of parliament which apply to the grant of 
the civil list in this country, with no other changes than such 
as unavoidably grew out of the different circumstances of the 
two cases. 

You will transmit to the council and to the assembly a copy 
of this despatch and of the draft which it incloses. You will 
acquaint those branches of the provincial legislature, that you 
are authorized in His Majesty^s name to assent to any bill 
which shall be tendered for your acceptance, if framed in the 
terms of the accompanying draft, or even if expressed in other 
terms, which shall introduce no substantial alteration in the 
provisions of the proposed law. Should any bill be passed by 
the two houses, having for its object the adjusting of the civil 
list, in terms varying from those which have been approved by 
myself, by the lords of the treasury, and by the delegates from 
the assembly, you will call on the provincial attorney and solicitor- 
general, to report to you Avhether the change is such as to alter 
in any respect, the substance and the legal effects of the 
intended measure. If they should report that the alterations 
are formal, merely, and not substantial, you will assent to the 
bill on His Majesty's behalf; but if the law officers of the 
crown should report that the variations affect the substance, as 
well as the form, then it will be your duty to withhold your 
assent, unless the bill should contain a suspending clause, or 
unless the operation of it should, by the terms of the law itself, 
be postponed for a period of at least five months, so as to enable 
His Majesty to interpose on the subject, before the new law 
could actually take effect within the province. 

It is my earnest hope that the provincial legislature will 



124 

adopt and pass this bill without any change, either of substance 
or of form, because I am anxious to preclude even the possi- 
bihty of dissension upon an occasion on which His Majesty is 
justly entitled to indulge the expectation that his efforts to 
adjust these questions on the most liberal basis, will be met by 
cordiality and confidence on the part of the representatives of 
his provincial subjects. 

It may be right to observe that the funds appropriated for 
the civil list are, in this draft, made issuable on the warrant of 
the governor alone, without requiring the advice and consent 
of the executive council. I am aware, that this is at variance 
with the customary form of legislation on such subjects in New 
Brunswick ; but it is in strict accordance with the practice of 
this country, and is therefore preferred, as maintaining the 
required analogy between the two cases. If the law should be 
passed in this form, it would still be competent to His Majesty 
to require that, in the exercise of the powers thus to be confided 
to his local representative, the governor should always consult 
the executive council, and His Majesty would accordingly issue 
to yourseK instructions to that effect, applying to all cases 
except those, which, however improbable and extreme, are yet 
possible in theory, — cases, namely, of an unreasonable and 
contumacious refusal on the part of the council to concur in 
sanctioning the necessary warrants on the treasury, 

I have, &c. 
Sir A. Campbell. (Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 25.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K, C. H. 
Sir, Dow7iing-street^pist October, 3 836. 

I THINK it right to place you in possession of a copy of a 
letter which has been addressed to Viscount Melbourne by Mr. 
Hume, complaining of your conduct in the recent elections in 
Upper Canada, and of my refusal to give to Mr. Baldwin and 
Dr. Buncombe, an opportunity of personally stating their 
grievances. I also transmit to you a copy of the reply which I 
have directed to be returned to Mr. Hume's letter. 

The charges which Mr. Hume has preferred against your 
administration, appear to be only a repetition of what you have 
already been called upon to answer. But I transmit to you the 
inclosed correspondence, in pursuance of the principle on which 



125 

I have hitherto acted^ of giving you ample opportunity of 
meeting every attack which may be made on your character and 
conduct, and of guarding at the same time against all misappre- 
hension of the nature of the communications which may pass 
between this department and private individuals on the subject 
of your government. I have, &c, 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



First Inclosure in No. 25. 
My Lord, fVortMng, 3rd October, 1836. 

When I last had an interview with your lordship, I requested 
your attention to the state of Upper Canada, and to the extra- 
ordinary proceedings of Sir Francis Head, during the late general 
election. 

I request you will have the goodness to present to His Ma- 
jesty the inclosed memorial from the inhabitant householders 
of the incorporated counties of Lenox and Addington in Upper 
Canada, complaining of the interference of Mr. Hagerman, the 
attorney-general, at elections there, contrary to the express 
instructions of Lord Ripon, and against the freedom of elections. 

It is with deep regret I complain of the conduct of Lord 
Glenelg to the agents of the reformers from Upper Canada, in 
having refused to give an interview either to Mr. Baldwin, a 
member of the late executive council, or to Dr. Charles Dun- 
combe, member for Oxford, in the new house of assembly of 
that province, although they came 4,000 miles, deputed by 
their colleagues, on purpose to explain to His Majesty^s go- 
vernment the conduct of Sir Francis Head, the lieutenant- 
governor, and of other public officers in that province. 

I most earnestly requested his lordship to grant an audience 
to these gentlemen, as they had requested; but he refused 
those applications, ami thereby behaved to them in a manner 
which I greatly regret. 

It appears that Sir Francis Head has put down the reformers 
in Upper Canada by giving his official support to the tories 
and Orangemen ; and he has acted, by fabricating votes after the 
elections had been begun, to overpower the old electors, con- 
trary to the rules laid down by the preceding colonial secretaries, 
and in violation of the rights of the people. 

Mr. Baldwm and Dr. Duncombe will both return to Canada 
and communicate to their countrymen that they have been not 
only refused redress to their complaints, but have been refused 



126 

by the colonial office an opportunity of personally stating their 
grievances. 

I trust such conduct will not be countenanced by the British 
parliament^ from whom alone, after such conduct, the people of 
Upper Canada can expect to obtain justice. 

I cannot believe that your lordship is acquainted with the 
state of affairs in Upper Canada, and with the conduct of Sir 
Francis Head, or you would not approve of the proceeding of 
the colonial office towards these agents from the province ; 
conduct which appears to me calculated to drive the people to 
desperation. 

I hope His Majesty will, according to the prayer of the 
petitioners, direct immediate inquiry into the complaints stated 
in their memorial. I have, &c. 

Viscount Melbourne. (Signed) JOSEPH HUME. 

&c. &c. &c. 



Second Inclosure in No. 25. 
Sir, Downlng-street, 2\st October, 1836. 

I AM directed by Lord Glenelg to acquaint you, that Vis- 
count Melbourne has transmitted to his lordship your letter of 
the 3rd instant, on the subject of the proceedings of Sir F. 
Head during the late general election for the house of assembly 
of Upper Canada. 

Lord Glenelg is of opinion, that as a more convenient occa- 
sion than the present will probably, ere long, offer itself for 
discussing the policy pursued by His Majesty^s government in 
relation to the affairs of Upper Canada, it could answer no 
useful purpose to enter into any correspondence on that 
question ; his lordship, however, avails himself of the oppor- 
tunity afforded by your communication to Lord Melbourne for 
the purpose of correcting some misapprehension into which you 
appear to have fallen, as to the occurrences which have drawn 
forth your animadversions. 

Your letter describes Mr. Baldwin and Dr. Charles Dun- 
combe as agents of the reformers from L^pper Canada, and as 
having been deputed by their colleagues on purpose to explain 
to His Majesty's government the conduct of the lieutenant- 
governor and of other public officers in the province ; and you 
state that Lord Glenelg refused to give an interview to either of 
those gentlemen, although it was most earnestly requested by 
yourself on their behalf. You add that they will both return to 



127 

Canada^ ami commuiiicate to their countrymen that they have 
been not only refused redress to their complaints, but have been 
refused by the colonial office an opportunity of personally stating 
their grievances. 

In reference to the preceding statements. Lord Glenelg directs 
me to remind you that on the 19th of August last, you presented 
to the house of commons a Petition from Dr. Charles Buncombe, 
a member of the assembly of Upper Canada, impugning the 
conduct of Sir Francis Head in the recent general election of the 
province, and laying to his charge various matters of high crimi- 
nality. 

On that occasion, I stated in my place in the house, that Lord 
Glenelg would call upon the lieutenant-governor for such ex- 
planations as he might be able to offer of the accusations so 
preferred against him. 

On the 16th of June you transmitted to Lord Glenelg a letter 
to yourself from Mr. Baldwin, in which that gentleman offered 
various suggestions for the consideration of His Majesty's go- 
vernment respecting the conduct of the public affairs in the pro- 
vince. But neither in your own letter, nor in that of Mr. Bald- 
win himself, was that gentleman represented as the agent of any 
person in the province, or as having been deputed by any one to 
proceed to this countrj^ ; on the contrary, in the very commence- 
ment of Mr. Baldwin's letter to you, are to be found the following 
expressions : " As I informed you verbally on Saturday last, I 
am not the agent for the petitioners :'' " being now in London, I 
do not feel that I would be justified in withholding my opinion 
on the present alarming state of affairs in that colony.'' 

With respect to the character of Dr. Duncombe, as the agent 
or deputy of any persons in the province, it is true that in your 
letter to myself, of the 19th of August, you state that gentleman 
to have come to England at the request of the reformers of 
Upper Canada, but Lord Glenelg does not find in any other 
document a suggestion that Mr. Duncombe was deputed by his 
colleagues to repair to this country. So far as the correspon- 
dence in this office extends, there is nothing to show that Dr. 
Duncombe ever laid claim to the character which is ascribed 
to him in your letter to Lord Melbourne. He presented him- 
self to His Majesty's government in the character of a member 
of the provincial assembly, but as invested with no other public 
trust. 



128 

It is perfectly true that Lord Glenelg declined to admit either 
Mr. Baldwin or Dr. Buncombe to a private interview. But it is 
no less true that immediately on receiving the intimation of their 
wish to make communications to His Majesty^s government, re- 
lating to the public interests of the province, his lordship invited 
those gentlemen to make their statements in writing. A written 
statement was accordingly made by Dr. Duncombe on the 20th 
of September, and within two days afterwards it was transmitted 
to Sir F. Head for his answer. 

Lord Glenelg claims for himseK the right to consider and to 
decide in each case, as it arises, whether the public interest and 
the ends of justice will be best promoted by oral or by written 
communications. In the present case, his lordship found ample 
reasons for the opinion that it was expedient that the statements 
of Messrs. Baldwin and Duncombe should be reduced into writ- 
ing. They were avowedly designed to criminate various pubhc 
officers ; nor can Lord Glenelg think that any man is entitled to 
complain, that in assuming the character of a pubhc accuser he 
is required to prefer his charges in that form in which alone they 
can be deliberately made, distinctly understood, and subjected 
to a full investigation. I have, &c. 

Joseph Hume, Esq. (Signed) GEORGE GREY. 



No. 26.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 2^th November, 1836. 

I HAVE received you despatch of the 12th September, No. 
72, inclosing a memorial addressed to myself by Mr. George 
Ridout, dated on the 12th of the preceding month of August, 
in which Mr. Ridout appeals to His Majesty's government 
against your removal of him from the offices of colonel of the 
inilitia, judge of the district court of Niagara, and justice of the 
peace. 

In deliberating on the advice which it became my duty to 
submit to the King on this occasion, I have thought myself 
obliged to exclude from my consideration every ground which 
has been alleged in defence of your proceedings against Mr, 
Ridout, which was not assigned by yourself in your correspond- 
ence with that gentleman. In general, I should consider it un- 
just to subject any man to humiliation and punishment for 
reasons which he has not had an opportunity of controverting ; 



129 

but in Mr. Rldout's case there are peculiar motives for adhering 
to this principle. In his letter of the 27th July^ he combated 
both by argument and by evidence, the single charge preferred 
in your private secretary's letter, and then proceeded as follows: 
'^ If, however, at this late period, your Excellency has any other 
reasons than those given, which have been hitherto kept back, 
I am wiUing to allow them every weight, nor shall I attempt, 
when informed of their existence, to suppress or lessen their 
just influence with His Majesty^s government in the statement 
which I am about to forward.^' Thus distinctly apprized that 
Mr. Ridout proposed to appeal against your decision, and with 
so unequivocal a demand for an opportunity of repelling every 
accusation which you might design to bring against him, I think 
that you were reduced to the alternative either of disclosing to 
him all the grounds of your proceeding, or of leaving the appeal 
to be decided by His Majesty upon those grounds exclusively, 
which you had so disclosed. 

Adverting then to the only charge against Mr. Ridout, of 
which he was apprized in your private secretary's letter of the 
1st July, I find it to have been, that he was an active member 
of a society by which a very objectionable address had been 
widely circulated. Mr. Ridout does not deny either that the 
address was indefensible, or that it had been widely circulated, 
or that it originated with the society in question. But he does, 
in the most positive terms, deny that he was a member of that 
society, or that he had ever seen the address until it met his eye 
in a printed form, in the course of its circulation through the 
province, or that he was in any sense responsible for it, either as 
author or as publisher. To these peremptory contradictions of 
the facts alleged against him, he adds, that he attended at the 
meeting at which the society in question was established, and 
opposed its formation on the principles contained in the resolu- 
tions brought forward by its author. This statement is corrobo- 
rated by the affidavit of Mr. Stuart, who states himself to have 
been present on the occasion. 

Such is the state of the question as it is presented to me by 
your despatch and its inclosures. I have sought in vain for any 
proof that Mr. Ridout was a member of this society, or that he 
in any manner partook in the publication of the objectionable 
address. I am compelled therefore to come to the conclusion, 
that the charge is not only unsupported by proof, but that to a 



130 

great extent^ it is actually disproved^ as it is in every point 
directly contradicted. 

But;, in the absence of evidence as to the fact^, you have referred 
me to the legal opinion of the solicitor-general of Upper Canada, 
who states that Mr. Ridout most decidedly did appear to be an 
active member of the said society. It will of course not be 
ascribed to any want of respect towards Mr. Hagerman, if I 
observe, that I do not understand why any legal reference is 
necessary in this case. The question involves no legal prin- 
ciple, but relates to a simple matter of fact. Mr. Stuart, though 
describing himself as a carpenter, is, I think, far more entitled 
to speak with authority on this occasion than the solicitor- 
general of the province, because the former possesses, and the 
latter does not possess, a personal acquaintance with what 
actually occurred, and because Mr. Stuart was present and Mr. 
Hagerman was absent when the society was formed, and when 
Mr. Ridout is said to have protested against its formation. 

It is with the deepest reluctance that I overrule a decision 
publicly adopted by you, especially in a case of the present 
nature. I have on every occasion felt, and, as I trust, have 
evinced the utmost solicitude to afford you all the support 
and countenance in my power in the discharge of your arduous 
duties ; but it is superfluous to say, that every consideration 
must yield to the irresistible claims of justice, and, for the 
reasons which I have mentioned, I find it impossible to dispute 
Mr. Ridout^s pretensions to be reinstated in his various offices. 
I have accordingly to convey to you His Majesty^s commands 
that Mr. Ridout should be permitted to resume the various 
employments from which he has been removed. I refer to your 
own judgment the mode of proceeding to carry these instruc- 
tions into effect. It will afford me most sincere pleasure if you 
should be able to reconcile the prompt and complete execution 
of them, with the protection of your own authority from the 
danger to which, I am well aware, it may be exposed by the 
measure which I am thus compelled to adopt. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 2t—Lord Glenelg to Sir R B. Head, K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 29th November, 1836. 

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 



131 

13th October^ No. 81^ announcing that in conformity with the 
instructions contained in my despatch of the 25th July, No. 'JS, 
you had appointed Mr. John Macaulay to the office of surveyor- 
general of Upper Canada, until His Majesty^s pleasure should 
be known. In reply, I have the honour to inform you that His 
Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve and confirm 
this appointment. 

With reference to the concluding paragraph of your despatch, 
and to the letter inclosed in it from Captain Macaulay, I must 
take this opportunity of observing, that until that gentleman's 
arrival in this country, I had no reason to suppose that his re- 
signation of the office of surveyor-general had been otherwise 
than absolute and unconditional. I much regret that any 
misapprehension on this subject should have existed, especially 
as I am informed that so confident was Captain Macaulay's 
expectation that his resignation would not be accepted, that he 
sold his commission in the engineers in order to qualify himseK 
to reside in Upper Canada, and there to discharge the duties of 
surveyor-general. Deeply as I am concerned to find that 
Captain Macaulay should have been involved in so very serious 
a loss, by his rehance on the intentions which he supposed His 
Majesty's government to entertain in his favour, I must 
disclaim all responsibility for an error to which no act of mine 
had given any countenance. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELa 



No, 28,— Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B, Head, K,C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, Srd January, 1837. 

In reviewing the series"of despatches which I received from 
you in the year 1836, in order to ascertain how far they had re- 
ceived a complete answer, I have found in your despatch of the 
29th July, No. 64, a passage to which I regret that my atten- 
tion has not been sooner directed. It relates to your intention 
of withholding your assent from any road bills, in which the 
commissioners shall be appointed by name for the expenditure 
of the money to be raised under them. I am not insensible to 
the dangerous tendency of this mode of legislation, nor do I 
doubt that the power it confers on the majority of the assembly 
is unconstitutional, or that it may be converted to selfish and 
unworthy purposes ; on the other hand, I do not desire to 
claim this patronage for the crown, or rather for the local go* 

K 2 



132 

vernment. This would be to provoke much reasonable jealousy 
without any compensatory advantage^ nor do I think that your 
proposal^ in its unqualified form^ could be safely adopted as the 
invariable rule of action. There is a middle course^ the adoption 
of which, by the house_, would avoid all these difficulties : it is, 
that the nomination of commissioners for local works should be 
made by the freeholders of the counties or townships through 
which such works are to be carried. You will consider 
whether this principle could not be advantageously affirmed by 
some general law for regulating the mode of appointing com- 
missioners for local improvements under provincial statutes. If 
this shall appear impracticable, then you will endeavour to ob- 
tain the introduction of this rule into each successive act of the 
kind, but should the legislative bodies persist in the practice 
which they have already pursued, you will abstain from refusing 
your assent to their acts on that ground, unless some case 
should present itself in which the abuse you reasonably appre- 
hend should be, not matter of surmise, but clearly and indis- 
putably established. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 29.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K. C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 4th January, 1837- 

Referring to the question proposed in your despatch of 
the 30th July last. No. 65, out of what funds you should de- 
fray the expense of your late tour of inspection through the 
province of Upper Canada, I have to return the following an- 
swer : — 

This is one of the contingent charges of your office, and 
every year must of course produce some exigencies v/hich it is 
impossible to foretel with certainty, or to provide for by a special 
appropriation beforehand of public money ; consequently, it is 
convenient that there should be a general allowance made at 
the commencement of each year for such contingencies, and 
that they should, if possible, be confined within the bounds of 
that allowance. Occasional exceptions to this rule must be 
considered and disposed of as they arise. 

In my recent arrangements with the province of New Bruns- 
wick, communicated to you in my despatch of the 30th of Sep- 
tember last, special provision is made for these annually recurring 
contingencies ; and the establishment of a similar rule in Upper 



133 

Canada^ with the sanction of the local legislature wilJ^ I trust, 
obviate any difficulty of this kind for the future ; but, with 
regard to the specific expense to which you refer, it will be 
deducted from the fund to which your predecessors have been 
accustomed to resort for defraying the contingent charges of 
their government. Until some new arrangement shall be finally 
made with the assembly, it is necessary that the ancient practice 
should be followed. As you have not yet stated what has been 
the amount of this charge, I can of course neither express any 
opinion nor convey to you any authority upon that part of the 
question. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 30.-^Lord Gknelg to Sir F, B. Head, K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 6th January, 1837. 

I HAVE had the honour to receive your despatch of the 'Jth. 
of last November, No. 87. That communication, on the very 
unusual tone and character of which I will not remark, contains 
various complaints of the conduct of His Majesty^s government, 
to which satisfactory replies could easily be given ; but in the 
first place, I beg to bring to your recollection the following 
passage from my despatch to you, dated the 22nd March, 
1836 :— - 

" Before I pass to the particular subjects to which you have 
thus called my attention, I would avail myself of this commence- 
ment of our official correspondence, as a fit opportunity for 
explaining the spirit in which I am anxious that it should be 
conducted. It is impossible that I should place implicit con- 
fidence in my own conclusions respecting passing events in 
Upper Canada, as they are successively reported to me. Al- 
though I do not regard a personal observation of such 
occurrences essential to a correct understanding of their 
character and tendency, yet at this distance from the scene, it is 
often unavoidable that my judgment on such matters should, for 
a considerable time, be suspended. During any such interval, I 
anticipate great relief and support from the reliance which I am 
happily entitled to repose in your discretion. I shall, however, 
offer for your solution, any doubts which may suggest them- 
selves to me, with perfect unreserve, and without yielding to 
the fear that you will ever misconstrue such inquiries into an 



134 

expression of distrust or of unavowed disapprobation. In the 
pursuit of the great object which we have in common^ you will, 
I am sure;, agree with me, that our official intercourse should be 
characterised both by entire frankness and by mutual confidence, 
and that on either side the most indulgent and favourable con- 
struction should be given to every expression which may be 
susceptible of more than one meaning/^ 

To proceed now to your despatch immediately before me. 

You complain of the time which was allowed to elapse 
before you were made acquainted with the views taken by His 
Majesty^s government, respecting Captain Macaulay^s appoint- 
ment to the surveyor-generalship ; respecting the dismissal of 
the executive council ; and respecting the loyal addresses which 
you had received. 

Without entering into details on each of these points, which 
appears to me unnecessary, I have only to observe that the 
delay was not occasioned by any indiiFerence to your feelings or 
position. My opinions on the subjects in question were formed 
en a mature consideration of the circumstances, and were com- 
municated to you at the times and in the manner which seemed 
to me the most advantageous to the public interests, and also 
the least likely to produce any unpleasant impression on your 
ov n mind. 

You quote from my despatches various detached passages, in 
which I have at different times recorded my dissent from your 
judgment, and my opinion that some of your measures were 
ill-advised ; and you complain of the plain avowal of these my 
sentiments, as a breach of what is due to you. In answer, I 
observe, that I cannot, without a sacrifice of duty, forbear to 
exercise, according to my discretion, the right of communicating 
to you frankly and unreservedly, my sentiments on questions 
connected with your official proceedings. It is with pleasure I 
take this opportunity of adding, that the exercise of this right 
has, in respect to your government, been usually an agreeable 
task to me ; since tl e sentiments which I have been called upon 
to express, as to the general course and tenor of your adminis- 
tration, ha^^e been those of cordial approbation. 

The only remark, in detail, which I make, refers to the case 
of Mr. Dunn, respecting which I would simply state that it was 
far from my intention to impute to you a meaning not your 
own; and that I cannot see the distinction between withdrawing 



135 

a recommendation to continue a public officer in his place, and 
advising his removal from it. 

It remains that I should notice one or two other passages of 
your despatch of the 7th November. 

I signified to you His Majesty^s gracious purpose to elevate 
you, at your own earnest solicitation, to the dignity of a baronet, 
informing you, however, that the accomplishment of it should 
be delayed only till you should return an answer, which I did 
not doubt would be complete, to certain charges preferred 
against you in parliament. While you acknowledged this 
promise, your despatch to which I am now replying, contained 
no allusion whatever to Dr. Duncombe^s charges. From this 
omission, I was at first apprehensive that I might have failed 
to express myself with sufficient clearness. A reference, how- 
ever, to the terms of my despatch of 8th September last, at 
once satisfied me that such was not the case ; and the receipt 
of your subsequent despatch of the 23rd November, in which 
you inform me that a copy of Dr. Duncombe^s charges had not 
reached you until the 20th of that month, renders any further 
observation on this point wholly unnecessary. 

I will only add, that I approve of the step which you took in 
referring that gentleman's charges to the house of assembly, 
and of your intention to reply to them yourself, as soon as the 
necessary materials could be collected. 

It will afford to the government sincere gratification to receive, 
and lay before the house of commons, your answer to the 
charges preferred against you by Dr. Duncombe, in his petition 
to that house. 

I conveyed to you His Majesty's instructions respecting the 
financial arrangements to be made in Upper Canada. You 
engage, as I understand, to fulfil them, but tender the resigna- 
tion of the promised baronetcy, if I insist on your adoption of 
my opinions, as to the policy of those instructions. It can be 
scarcely necessary to disclaim any wish to exact of you, as the 
condition of an honorary reward, a conformity not to my in- 
structions, but to my judgment. Your opinions are and must 
be your own. It is, therefore, wholly unnecessary, that you 
should on that ground relinquish the baronetage. 

I cannot conclude this despatch without expressing my 
earnest wish, that in the official relation in which we stand to 
each other, there should be an entire absence of any feeling of sus- 



136 

picion and distrust^ which^ while I utterly disclaim it on my own 
part^ I cannot but regret to perceiye in some of your official 
(Communications, I have^ &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. SI.— Lord Glenel^ to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
Bin, Downing -street, 2Qth January, 1837- 

I HAVE had the honour to receive your despatch of the 28th 
October last^ No. 86, inclosing a memorandum on the present 
political state of the Canadas. I beg you to accept my thanks 
for your communication, which will not fail to receive the 
mature consideration of His Majesty^s government, although at 
the present moment it would, for obvious reasons, be incon- 
venient to enter into a correspondence on the subject. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG, 



No, S2.^Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B, Head, KC.H 
Sir, Doivning^street, 2^th January, 1837. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch of the 6th 
November, No. 89, reporting the result of your efforts to obtain 
from Messrs. Bidwell and Rolph, copies of the letters addressed 
by those gentlemen to myself, and referred to in my despatches 
Nos. 75. and 76. 

As Mr. Bidwell has declined, and Dr. Rolph has omitted, 
to communicate to you the representations which they had 
made to His Majesty's government, respecting your conduct, 
it is unnecessary any further to advert to them, except to assure 
you, that under such circumstances, they cannot have any in- 
fluence on my opinion of your conduct. Your explanation 
respecting the charges contained in Mr. Baldwin's letter of 26th 
July, and in that from Mr. Morrison of 29th April, appears 
to me satisfactory, and I have already conveyed to you my 
approbation of your having referred to the house of assembly, 
Pr. Duncombe's petition to the house of commons. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



137 

JS/o, 3S,--Lord Glenelg to SirF. B.Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 28M January, 1837. 

I HAVE had the honour to receive your despatch of the 27th 
July, No. 62, reporting the appointment of Mr. Robert Baldwin 
Sullivan to be commissioner of crown lands, and agent for the 
sale of clergy reserves, in the place of Mr. P. Robinson. I 
have hitherto delayed replying to that despatch, because the 
question of the land department in Lower Canada having been 
brought under my consideration by a despatch from the Earl of 
Gosford, and by a report from the commissioners of inquiry, I 
had expected before this time, to have been able to adopt some 
general arrangement applicable to all the North American 
colonies, by which the delay and expense now attending the 
passing of patents to land might be reduced, and, at the same time, 
the general efficiency of the department promoted. It has not, 
however, been possible as yet, finally to complete such an ar- 
rangement, and as you have announced your intention, at an 
early date, to report to me on the regulations for the disposal 
of land, as far as regards Upper Canada, I have abstained in the 
interval from definitively introducing any alterations in the 
existing system. I am therefore at present unable to inform 
you of the footing on which this office may ultimately be placed, 
and I cannot consequently confirm Mr. Sullivan^s appointment 
absolutely. I am anxious, however, no longer to delay my 
approbation of your selection of that gentleman, for the office of 
commissioner of crown lands, and for the sale of clergy reserves, 
although he must be considered as only holding the appoint- 
ment provisionally, and subject to any regulation which His 
Majesty^s government may adopt, either as to the nature of his 
duties or the amount of his official income, and on the distinct 
understanding, that in the event of any change being made in 
the functions or emoluments of the office, no claim for com- 
pensation will be admitted. Should Mr. SuUivan^s appoint- 
ijient ultimately be confirmed, it will be necessary that he should 
authorize an agent to pay to the cashier of this office the usual 
charges upon the warrant, under His Majesty's sign manual, 
authorizing you to make a grant to him of the offices in question 
under the great seal of Upper Canada. 

In conveying to you my sanction of your choice of Mr. 
Sullivan, and in thus assuring that gentleman of the favourable 
light in which I view his public services as reported by you, I must 



138 

guard myseK against b^ing supposed to pronounce an opinion 
on the expediency of combining a seat in the executive council 
with these employments ; that is a question which I "v^dsh to 
reserve for future consideration^ and to the settlement of which, 
at the proper time, I desire to come completely unfettered. 

I have, 8tCi 

' (Signed) GLENELG. 



Wo. U.'^Lord Glenelg to Sir R B. Head, K.dH. 
iiRy Downing-street, ^\st January, 1837. 

I Save received and have laid before the King your despatch 
of the 14th December last, No. 100, announcing that you had 
proceeded to the legislative council chamber to give your assent 
in person to a bill to provide for the support of the civil govern- 
inent, which had passed both houses of the legislature of Upper 
Canada, and reporting the terms in which this bill was pre- 
sented to you by the speaker of the house of assembly. His 
Majesty commands me to express the satisfaction mth which 
he has perceived the sentiments of loyalty to him, and of con- 
fidence in your administration, contained in the address of the 
speaker of the assembly ; and it has been a source of gratifica- 
tion to His Majesty to find that his loyal subjects of Upper 
Canada will, by the liberality of the provincial legislature, be 
relieved from the inconveniences consequent on the refusal of 
the usual supplies to His Majesty's government during the 
preceding session. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No.^5,^Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H 
Sir, Downing-street, 26th February, 1837. 

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your, despatch of the 
13th January, No. 104, announcing the result of the municipal 
elections for the city of Toronto. I have perceived with much 
satisfaction that these elections have terminated in such a 
manner as to testify, on the part of the inhabitants of that city, 
their confidence in your policy, and their approbation of the 
measures which you have adopted to promote the general wel- 
fare of His Majesty's subjects in Upper Canada. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



139 

No, 36,-~Lord Glenelg to SirF. B.Head, K.CH. 
Sir, Downing-street, 2nd March, 1837. 

I HAVE received your despatch dated the 30tli December 
last. No. 103. 

On the present, as on former occasions, I pass over without 
remark, the tone in which your remonstrances against the 
measures of His Majesty^s government are written, and confine 
myself to those questions which are practical, and to which it is 
necessary that I should advert. 

1st. I approve your decision not to suppress His Majesty's 
order in council, confirming the twelve bills passed by the coun- 
cil and assembly of Upper Canada, in the session of 1835-6. 
To have taken such a course would have been to incur a very 
grave responsibihty, without even the chance of any ultimate 
benefit. I need hardly observe, that an order in council, made by 
the King in the exercise of the legislative powers conferred on 
His Majesty by the constitutional act of 1791:5 is a measure of 
the most solemn and irrevocable nature. 

I find in your despatch of the 30th of December nothing 
which induces me to regret the advice which I tendered to His 
Majesty on that subject. 

2nd. You complain that in my despatch to Sir Archibald 
Campbell, of the ^SOth of September last, I stated that the 
executive council of New Brunswick was to be increased in 
number, and henceforward to be composed of individuals 
^^ possessing the confidence of the people.^' It is, I am sure,- 
from inadvertence merely that you have quoted that despatch 
inaccurately ; but the eifect of your quotation is such as to alter 
materially the real sense of the passage to which you have thus 
referred. My language was as follows : — '^^ You will immediately 
report tome the names of several gentlemen whom you 
may think most ehgible for seats in His Majesty's executive 
council. In making your selection, yoxi will not confine yourself 
to a single class or description of persons, but will endeavour 
to insure the presence, in the council, of gentlemen representing 
aU the various interests which exist in the province, and possess- 
ing at the same time the confidence of the people at large/' 

You have attached to these words a meaning widely difi'erent 
from that which they are intended to express. According to 
you, they concede the demand which was made by the late 
executive council, and which was justly refused by you as un- 



140 

constitutional. This is assuredly not the case ; my words^ when 
fully transcribed^ merely state that^ although each separate 
interest was to be^ if possible^ represented, yet that the gentle- 
men to be selected from each should be such as possessed the 
confidence, not exclusively of their respective sections of 
society, but also of the people at large. I presume you do not 
mean to deny the propriety of such a regulation ; if, however, 
such be your meaning, I am unable to agree with you. 

3rd. You argue at great length to prove, that the laws which 
will be established, respecting the disposal of the crown lands, 
will deliver over that extensive property to the rapacity of 
interested men. I shall not deny that such a consequence might 
follow from the enactment of such a law as you have mentioned; 
but I have certainly not imparted to you any authority whatever 
to assent on His Majesty^s behalf to such a law, nor, with my 
present information, could I advise the King to confirm such 
an act, if assented to by you. While I have never doubted the 
impolicy of surrendering the right of regulating the disposal of 
the crown lands to one, or even to both branches of the provin- 
cial legislature, uncontrolled by the ordinary and constitutional 
exercise of the royal prerogative, I am fully prepared to justify 
the wisdom, and even to prove the necessity of acquiescing in the 
establishment, by laws originating in the province itself, of the 
general principles by which the executive government is to be 
guided in the alienation of the unsettled lands of the crown ; 
but I have never abandoned, or intended to abandon the un- 
doubted right of the King to prevent the introduction of any 
such principles as may be hostile to the interests of the present 
inhabitants of the province, or to others of His Majesty^s sub- 
jects who may be desirous to settle there. 

Indeed, as any such act must be laid before parliament, before 
it can be confirmed by the King, we possess every security 
against such abuses which the nature of the case admits. 

As you have not pointed out any particulars in which the 
spirit of the instructions, which you had on quitting England, 
has been departed from in any subsequent communications 
which I have had the honour of addressing to you, I do not feel 
it necessary to say more, with reference to the latter part of the 
present despatch than that, while the vigour and firmness which 
you have displayed in the administration of the affairs of Upper 
Canada has merited, and received the approbation of His 



141 

Majesty^ I can scarcely believe that you seriously intend to 
assert that the measures of your government should necessarily 
be stern and unconciliating. No principle, indeed^ which ought 
to be maintained should be sacrificed to a temporary popularity; 
yet to conciliate the good-will and attachment of the great body 
of the people, and thereby to strengthen the bond of union 
between this country and the Canadas, is the great object of 
His Majesty's government, and one which, I trust, I am correct 
in believing that you mil not suffer yourself to consider as of 
slight importance. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. S7.—Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B, Head, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-sti'eet, 2']th March, 1837. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your des^^atch of the 4tli 
February last. No. 6, and in reply, I beg to refer you to my 
despatch of the 28th January, No. 135, in w^hich I have ex- 
plained the grounds of the delay in approving of the appoint- 
ment of Mr. R. B. Sullivan to be commissioner of crown lands, 
and agent for the sale of clergy reserves in Upper Canada, and 
the terms on which alone it has hitherto been in my power to 
confirm him in those offices. I have, he, 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. S8.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, K.C.H. 
SiRj Downing-street, 5th Aprils 1837. 

I HAVE received your despatch of the 6th of February last. 
No. 13, on the case of Mr. Ridout. In order to explain clearly the 
view which I have taken of this subject, I must begin with a 
short retrospect of what has hitherto occurred, although it will 
perhaps involve me in the repetition of some statements already 
addressed to you. 

Mr. Ridout^s dismission from his offices was communicated 
to him on the 12th of July last, in letters written to him by 
your secretary, and by the adjutant-general of the militia. In 
your secretary's letter this measure was attributed to the circum- 
stance that Mr. Ridout was, as it appeared, a member of the 
constitutional reform society of Upper Canada, by and on behalf 
of which had been circulated the printed address to which 
reference was there made. The adjutant-generaFs letter stated 
that Mr. Ridout was deprived of his commission in the mihtia, 
for the reasons mentioned in your secretary's letter. 



142 

On tha 14th of July, Mr. Ridout transmitted to your secretary 
an answer denying that he was a member of the society in 
question, or that he had ever seen their address until it was in 
circulation, in print, through the city of Toronto. His answer to 
the adjutant-general suggested, that the real cause of his dis- 
mission was a vote which he had given at the general election* 
The adjutant-general replied by contradicting the truth of this 
surmise. 

On the 22nd of July, Mr. Ridout announced to you his inten- 
tion to bring his case under the notice of His Majesty^s govern- 
ment, and made an application to be furnished with an explana- 
tion of any other reasons for your conduct which might have 
been kept back. No notice having been taken of this letter, he 
placed in your hands, for transmission to this country, his 
petition of the 12th of August, in which he offered to prove that 
he had refused to connect himself with the constitutional reform 
society, because he disapproved of its constitution. He attached 
to that document the affidavit of Alexander Stuart, in which the 
deponent confirmed Mr. Ridout^s statement, alleging that he 
was present at the formation of the society, and heard Mr. 
Ridout oppose that measure. 

In your despatch of the 12th of September, you inclosed the 
preceding correspondence, and imputed to Mr. Ridout various 
acts of misconduct to which that correspondence contained no 
allusion. 

In my despatch of the 29th of November, I stated that I had 
thought myself obhged to exclude from my consideration, every 
ground alleged in defence of your proceeding against Mr. 
Ridout, which had not been assigned by yourseK in your corres- 
pondence with that gentleman. For this decision I gave three 
distinct reasons : they were, first, that it seemed to me unjust to 
subject any man to humiliation and punishment for reasons 
which he has not had an opportunity of controverting ; secondly, 
that Mr. Ridout had combated, both by argument and by evi- 
dence, the single charge preferred in your secretary's letter; 
and, thirdly, that with a view to his appeal to His Majesty's 
government, he had demanded an opportunity of repelling any 
other accusation which you might have to bring against him. 

In reference to this statement, you have, in your despatch of 
the 6th February, observed, that in no department of the state, 
not even in my own office, has it ever been deemed necessary, 



143 

or even advisable^ that every reason for wliicli an individual is 
to be relieved from office must be stated to him ; that it may be 
necessary to remove a public officer for many reasons which it 
may not be desirable to explain to him ; and that you were ex- 
pressly absolved from any such necessity by my own instruc- 
tions to you. 

You must permit me to state^ unreservedly^ that this answer 
appears to me inadequate. First, I am totally ignorant of the 
existence, either in this office or in any other department of the 
state, of any such practice as that to which you refer. I am not 
aware of so much as a single instance in which a pubhc officer 
has been dismissed as a punishment, and on the ground of mis- 
conduct, without the most explicit disclosure to him of the 
reasons by which his superior vindicated such an exercise of 
authority. Secondly, I cannot concur with you in opinion that 
any man ought to use or to possess such a power over those 
serving under him. The only difficulty of supporting my 
opinion on this subject by argument is, that so simple and ele- 
mentary a principle of justice would rather be obscured than 
illustrated by a statement of the reasons which instantly suggest 
themselves in support of it. There are, indeed, official relations 
of such a nature that it is necessary to confide to the superior 
officer the right of dissolving them at once, without assigning 
any cause whatever to the suffi3rer. Thus, for example, a public 
officer should be at liberty instantly to remove his private secre- 
tary for mere incongruity of habits or temper, or for the want of 
some peculiar talent or qualification; causes which, in such a 
relation, are of the utmost weight, but which could scarcely be 
drawn out into a specific charge or statement. In such cases, this 
is mutually understood as the necessary condition and tenure of 
the service. Yet even in this intimate and confidential relation, 
if the removal should be made avowedly on the ground of mis- 
conduct, the superior would be bound, in common justice, to 
explain unreservedly, in what the imputed fault consisted ; if not, 
any man^s character and happiness might be sacrificed by vague 
suspicion, and by surmises injurious in proportion to the station 
and character of the accuser. Thirdly, I cannot allow that the 
instructions from me, which you have quoted, absolve you from 
this obligation : on the contrary, I think they* clearly impose it 
upon you ; they declare your responsibihty to the king and to 
parliament. In Mr. Ridout's case, notice was given to you that 



144 

an appeal was about to be made to his Majesty. To acquit 
yourself of the responsibility which I declared you to owe to the 
King^ it became incumbent on you to establish the fact that 
Mr. Ridout had merited the severe punishment which had been 
inflicted on him. To substantiate that conclusion^ it was neces- 
sary to show that he had really been guilty of the offences, laid 
to his charge ; and this could be proved only by showing that 
what he was alleged to have said or done^ admitted of no satis- 
factory explanation ; a result which could not be established 
until an opportunity of making such explanation had been 
afforded to him. Fourthly, if I could admit that you were en- 
titled to inflict a punishment without a distinct statement to the 
accused party of the causes which had provoked it, I should yet 
limit that admission to cases in which an entire silence had been 
maintained. Instead of this, however, you communicated to 
Mr. Ridout a single charge, which he contradicted and applied 
himself to disprove. He was thus, I think, warranted in be- 
lieving that, if successful in refuting that accusation, his excul- 
pation was complete. Finally, I thought that in what related to 
the constitutional reform society, Mr. Ridout^s defence was con- 
clusive, and I could not therefore but doubt whether he might 
not have been equally successful in vindicating himself against 
the other charges, if they had been made known to him. 

For these reasons, I adhere to my first opinion, that I was 
bound to exclude from my consideration every allegation against 
Mr. Ridout, of which he had not been apprised. 

You, however, maintain that your despatch of the 12th of 
September ought to have satisfied me of the truth of the accu- 
sation preferred in your secretary's letter of the 12th of July, 
Two reasons are assigned for this conclusion : first, I had before 
me the statement of your own conviction that the charge was 
well-founded ; and, secondly, I knew that you had obtained a 
legal opinion to the same effect. 

It would be more than superfluous to declare my perfect re- 
liance on the accuracy of every assertion of yours, respecting 
any matter of fact which has fallen within your own personal 
observation ; neither is it necessary to disclaim altogether the 
idea of impeaching in any degree, the legal knowledge or the 
talents of the attorney-general; but neither you nor the at- 
torney-general offered yourselves as witnesses to the matter of 
fact, namely, whether Mr. Ridout was or was not a member of 



145 

the constitutional reform society ; you kid claim to no personal 
knowledge of his conduct in reference to that body. The at- 
torney-general was quoted^ not as a witness of the fact, but only 
as an interpreter of the law. Consequently, notwithstanding 
the strong dissent which you have expressed, I must continue 
to think that the authority of Stuart, though a common car^ 
penter, when speaking on his oath respecting an occurrence 
which passed in his own presence and hearing, is entitled to 
much more weight on the question of fact, than can be assigned 
to the opinion even of the attorney-general, who appears to have 
had not the slightest personal knowledge of what took place at 
the meeting. This is a conclusion to which, in so far as regards 
the facts in question, no one, I am inclined to think, would 
more readily subscribe than the attorney-general himself. 

From your despatch of the 6th of February, I now, however, 
for the first time, learn that Mr. Ridout's removal from office 
was recommended by the executive council, and I farther learn 
that they adhere to their original opinion. On this subject I 
have to state, that I have never expressed, nor do I now enter- 
tain, any judgment opposed to theirs ; on the contrary, I en- 
tirely agree with them, that the various acts of misconduct, 
ascribed to Mr. Ridout in your despatch of the 12th of Sep- 
tember, and still more fully stated in your despatch of the 6th 
of February, are such as would, if substantiated on proper 
inquiry, justify the very severe penalty inflicted on him. If I 
am to understand the council as thinking that such an inquiry 
was needless, I must, with whatever reluctance, differ from 
them. The grounds of that difference I have already, in part, 
explained ; but I must add, that if there be any one class of 
public officers in whose case it is especially incumbent on the 
executive government to proceed v/ith caution, circumspection, 
and with a strict observance of all the essential forms of pro- 
ceeding on such occasions, it is the class of those who are en- 
trusted with the administration of justice. 

In avowing my opinion, that the matters laid to the charge 
of Mr. Ridout would, if established, justify his dismission, I wish 
to be understood as not referring to the intemperate terms in 
which he addressed you after his removal from office. Much 
allov/ance is to be made for natural feelings under a sense of 
supposed injury, it is to the other allegations that my remark 
applies. 



146 

It is, I can assure you, painful to me to take any course of 
conduct which may aggravate the difficulties of your situation ^ 
yet I feel myself bound by the paramount obligations of justice 
stiU to withhold my approbation of the measures adopted in 
Mr. Ridout^s case. On the other hand, his restitution to office 
may, I think, be properly made to depend upon his ability to 
exculpate himseK from the various charges preferred against him 
in your despatches of the 12th of September and the 6th of 
February. To this extent the instructions conveyed to you in 
my despatch of the 29th of November are withdrawn and quali- 
fied ; further than this, it is impossible for me to advance. You 
will, therefore, in whatever mode you shall think best, put Mr. 
Ridout in possession of those accusations, and, after weighing 
his answer and the evidence by which it may be supported, 
you will communicate to me the result. 

I cannot close my answer to your despatch of the 6th of 
February, without adverting to some of the general topics to 
which you have there taken occasion to advert. 

You complain that the governor's official explanatory des- 
patches have in this case been treated by me as mere hearsay 
evidence, which must not affect the merits of the case. I may, 
perhaps, misunderstand the precise meaning of this remark, 
but if it be that statements made by a governor to me on the 
authority of third persons are entitled to the same weight as if 
they referred to facts of which he was the personal observer and 
witness, I can only say that I am not aware of any reason 
which would justify me in so regarding them. 

If I rightly interpret some other passages of your despatch, 
you understand me to have authorised you to dismiss from 
office any person who should openly or latently oppose your 
policy. If you will refer again to the instructions which you- 
have thus quoted, you will perceive that the officers to whom I 
referred, were not of the class to which Mr. Ridout belonged, 
but persons whose pubhc offices bring them into a confidential or 
immediate connection with your administration of the affairs of 
the province. I certainly never contemplated that every officer of 
the militia, every district judge, and every justice of the peace, 
should hold his office on the condition of being dismissed if he 
should happen to oppose the pohcy of the Ueutenant-governor 
for the time being. To urge the rule which I have laid down 
to such consequences, is at once to misapprehend my meaning, ^ 
and to estabhsh a principle which would bring almost every 



147 

gentleman in the province into such relations with the local 
government, as no man of independent character and principles 
could be expected or desired to maintain. The instructions to 
which you have referred, were intended to apply (and I think 
that intention sufficiently manifest) to those high and confiden- 
tial officers of your government only, with whom you are habi- 
tually brought into confidential intercourse upon the general 
interests of the province. 

If there be any ambiguity in my instructions to you, which I 
do not perceive, you will hereafter understand them in this 
limited sense only. 

You further express your expectation that the " mere expres- 
sion of yom' opinion of the absolute necessity for the dismissal 
of any person from office, whom, from your local knowledge, 
you deemed hostile to the British constitution, would have 
carried with it infinitely more weight than the individua?s 
denial of his own guilt.^^ From this and other passages in your 
despatch, I infer that you regard the secretary of state as 
virtually bound to adopt your opinions in individual cases as 
conclusive, even upon an appeal against your decision; but 
such is not my estimate of the duties of my office. I act under 
a strict and effective responsibility to the King and to parlia- 
ment. Of every measure which I take, or which when taken by 
others, I approve, I must be prepared to produce the vindication. 
But I should ill acquit myself of that duty, if I attempted to 
rest my justification on an implicit confidence in the judgment 
of the officer against whose acts an appeal had been brought 
before me. Cherishing, as I do, the strongest presumption in 
favour of every decision of yours, I must yet, as often as your 
sentence is impeached, examine into the merits of the question 
with strict impartiality, and with a jealousy of those preposses- 
sions in favour of your opinions from which I can never be 
exempt. 

In our relative position in His Majesty's service, I could not 
act on any other principle without abandoning my duty to the 
King and to His Majesty's subjects; and I trust that, on your 
part, the just and lively estimate which you have formed of the 
importance and responsibility of your own duties, will be com- 
bined with a due allowance for the not less arduous and respon- 
sible nature of mine. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG^ 

L 2 



148 

^ No. 2>^ —Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, Bart., K. C. M. 
Sir, Dotvning-street, 17th April, ISS7^ 

I HAVE received His Majesty^s commands to take the neces- 
sary measures for expediting your patent as a baronet of the 
united kingdom. The King is graciously pleased to confer upon 
you this mark of His Royal favour, as a fit testimony of the high 
sense which His Majesty entertains of the services which you have 
rendered in the administration of the government of Upper 
Canada. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 

No. AO.—Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B, Head, Bart., K.CJL 
Sir, 'Doivning-street, 1 7 th April, 1837. 

I HAVE received your despatch dated the 4th February, No. 
7. It reached me on the 20th ultimo. It was not until the 7th 
instant, that I received, by a subsequent conveyance, the 
appendix, comprising the evidence taken before the committee 
of the house of general assembly of Upper Canada, to which was 
referred my correspondence with you, on the subject of the 
petition presented to the house of commons by Dr. Duncombe in 
the parliamentary session of 1836. 

The refutation of Dr. Duncombe^s charges is entirely satis- 
factory. It has been in the highest degree gratifying to me to 
be able to report to His Majesty, that after a minute and 
vigorous inquuy, during w^hich every facility was given to the 
petitioner to substantiate his" accusation, your conduct, in refer- 
ence to the elections, has been proved to have been governed 
by a strict adherence to the principles of the constitution. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 41.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, Bart.,K.C.H 
Sir, Downing-street, 20th April, 1837* 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch. No. 22^ 
of the 4th ultimo, in which you transmit a copy of an address 
presented to you by the house of assembly of Upper Canada, 
together with a copy of the report of the select committee of 
that house, to v»^hom was referred the subject of the petition of 
Dr. Duncombe to the house of commons, during the last ses- 
sion of parliament. 

You also inclose two copies of that report to be laid before 
the houses of parliament, in compliance with th^ request con- 
tained in the address of the assembly. 



149 

I have had the honour to lay this address^ with the accom- 
panying document^ before the King; and His Majesty has been 
graciously pleased to express the satisfaction with which he has 
read the result of the inquiries, of the house of assembly, into the 
allegations contained in Dr. Duncombe^s petition. 

With regard to your reqxiest that your despatch No. 7^ of 4th 
February, in reply to the charges preferred against you by Mr. 
Hume and Dr. Duncombe, may be laid before parliament, 1 beg 
to acquaint you that Sir G. Grey, in his place in the house of 
commons, has moved for the production of that despatch, 
together with the address of the house of assembly and its inclo- 
sures, and that His Majesty has been pleased to order that they 
shall be produced accordingly. 1 have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 42.— Lord Glenelg to Sir K B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 20th April, 1837. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your des- 
patch No. 23, of the 4th ultimo, in which you transmit to me 
an address from the house of assembly of Upper Canada to the 
King, on the subject of the resolutions received from the speaker 
of the house of assembly of Lower Canada, by the late house of 
assembly of the upper province at its last session. 

I beg leave to acquaint you, that having laid this address 
before the King, His Majesty was pleased to receive, with the 
highest satisfaction, the impressive evidence which it conveys o| 
the attachment of the assembly of Upper Canada, and of their 
constituents, to the principles of the constitution established by 
the statute of 1791. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG, 



No. 45.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
^i% Downing-street, 14th July, 1837. 

I HAVE had the honour to receive your despatch of the 5th 
April last. No. 41, inclosing the copy of a Gazette Extraordinary, 
notifying certain legal appointments which you had made, in 
conformity with an act passed by the legislature of Upper 
Canada, during their last session. The public events which 
have occurred since my receipt of that act, have hitherto ren^ 
dered it impossible to submit it for the royal sanction ; but I 
tru6t that I shall have it in my power to communicate to vou 



150 

the Queen's pleasure respecting it at an early period. In the 
meantime Her Majesty commands me to express her appro- 
bation of the appointment of Mr. Jameson to be vice-chancel- 
lor^ and of Messrs. A. Maclean and Jonas Jones to be judges in 
the court of Queen's bench, and I shall take an early oppor- 
tunity of transmitting to you the necessary warrants, under the 
royal sign manual, confirming those appointments. 

The selection of Mr. Hagerman to be attorney-general, 
appears more open to question. I am fully prepared to admit, 
,as a general rule, the claim of the solicitor-general not to be 
passed over in any new arrangements, such as those to which your 
despatch refers, and I am of opinion that such a claim should 
not be set aside, without some strong and paramount reason. 

I am also willing to give the greatest weight to the repre- 
sentations which you have addressed to me in Mr. Hagerman's 
favour, founded both on his private character and public merit. 
It is, however, essential that the gentleman who fills the high 
and responsible office of attorney-general, should hold opinions 
on questions of general policy, and relating to the administra- 
tion of the affairs of the province, in unison with those of the 
executive government. 

I have no reason to doubt that you have received the utmost 
support and co-operation from the solicitor-general ; but I am 
bound to add, that if the sentiments ascribed to Mr.Hagerman in 
the resolutions, a copy of which I have the honour to inclose, be 
really entertained by him, andhavebeen publicly expressed by him 
in his place as amember of the provincial legislature during the last 
session, a very wide difference exists between his view and that of 
Her Majesty's government, supported by the opinion given by the 
law officers of the crown, in 1819, as to the right of the church 
of Scotland in Upper Canada, under the act of 1791. As those 
resolutions have been transmitted to me by an individual mem- 
ber of the general assembly of the church of Scotland, and as I 
have not received any information from you on the subject, I am 
willing to hope that some misapprehension may have existed as 
to the real nature of the language employed by Mr. Hagerman ; 
I shall therefore suspend my opinion as to the propriety of his 
advancement to the office of attorney-general, until he shall have 
had an opportunity of offering any explanation which he may 
desire to give with reference to this subject. 

You will communicate to Mr. Hagerman a copy of so much 



151 

of this despatch as relates to him^ together \^ith a copy of the 
inclosed paper. 

There is another subject noticed in your despatch, to which it 
is necessary that I should advert. You state that it has been 
with unfeigned regret that you have omitted to recommend for 
t)ne of the new legal appointments Mr. Bidwell, whose pro- 
fessional talents you consider superior to those of at least one 
of the gentlemen selected by you, while his character is irre- 
proachable. You observe, however, that Mr. BidwelFs object, 
" so far as it could be elicited by the conduct of his associates,'' 
was to separate Upper Canada from the parent state, and you 
claim my assent to the proposition that '^ where a man acts 
with disloyal associates his talents aggravate rather than ex- 
tenuate his offence." 

I need not assure you of the great weight which I attach to 
any opinion respecting the affairs of Upper Canada deliberately 
expressed by you ; and I have accordingly felt bound, in the 
present instance, to defer to your judgment relative to Mr. Bid- 
well ; but, considering that the disloyalty which is imputed to 
Mr. BidwelFs associates is not charged against himself, or at- 
tempted to be proved by any act of his ; that he has, for the 
present at least, withdrawn himself from political strife ; and 
that his legal abilities and high moral character are acknowledged 
and respected even by his political opponents, I cannot regard 
the part which he formerly took in local politics as an insu- 
perable barrier to his future advancement in his profession; on 
the contrary, adverting to the general estimate of his qualifica- 
tions for a seat on the bench, it appears to me that the public 
interests would be promoted by securing his services. Nor 
would it be of slight importance to convince the inhabitants of 
Upper Canada, that in the selections for judicial offices the exe- 
cutive government is actuated by no other feeling than an 
anxiety to promote the welfare of all classes of Her Majesty's 
subjects. If, therefore, as you appear to anticipate, another 
vacancy should occur among the judges of the court of Queen's 
bench, it is the wish of Her Majesty's government that the si- 
tuation should be offered to Mr. Bidwell, and they will hear 
with much pleasure that he has accepted it. 

I have^ &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



152 

Inclosure in No. 43. 
Meeting of the Congregation of Saint Andrew's Church, 

Pursuant to a requisition to that effect^ a meeting of the 
congregation of Saint Andrew^s church took place in the church 
yesterday evenings the 28th day of March^ 1837, for the pur- 
pose of taking prompt and decided measures for securing the 
ecclesiastical rights of the adherents of the church of Scotland 
in this province, from the infringements with which these rights 
are at present threatened^ and also for the purpose of electing a 
delegate to represent the congregation at the proposed meeting 
of the delegates from the several congregations of the churchy to 
be held at Coburg on the 14th of April next. 

At seven o^clock the Reverend John Machar opened the 
meeting by prayer^ after which John M'Lean. Esq._, w^as called 
to the chair^ and Mr. R. M. Rose appointed secretary. 

The chairman having explained the objects of the meeting, 
the following resolutions were put and unanimously adopted. 

Moved by Mr. Pringle^ and seconded by Mr. Andrew Drum- 
mond : ■ — Resolved^ That this meetings firmly believing that 
^^ righteousness exalteth a nation/^ have ever contemplated with 
peculiar satisfaction that part of the imperial statute of the 31st 
of His late Majesty George the Third, which makes provision 
for the maintenance and support of a protestant clergy within 
thsse provinces, by an allotment of one-seventh of the waste 
lands of the crown for that purpose. 

Moved by Mr. Williamson, and seconded by Mr, Harper :— 
Resolved, That this meeting, while they entertain a grateful 
sense of the just and enlightened views which actuated His late 
Majesty, and the other branches of the imperal legislature, in 
making provision for the support of a protestant clergy, cannot 
forbear expressing their deep regret that the church of Scotland 
have not only hitherto been debarred from participating in the 
proceeds of the interest and rents arising from the reserved 
lands, but in other respects have been treated rather as the 
teachers of a sect merely tolerated, than as the clergy of a church 
recognized and acknowledged by the laws of the empire. 

Moved by Mr. Patrick M'Gregor, and seconded by M-r. 
John Mowat [Vide end of this Inclosure, Note 1.] : — Resolved, 
That when this meeting refer to the declared opinions of the 
very highest legal authorities of the empire, given at Doctors 
Commons on the 15th November, 1819, and to the concurrent 



153 

opinion of the select committee of the house of commons, in 
the year 1827, and also to the subsequent instructions of His 
Majesty to his then heutenant-governor Sir John Colborne, 
in the year 1832, wherein His Majesty most distinctly recog- 
nizes " the just claims of the established churches of England 
and Scotland/' and expresses his concern that ^^ as yet the 
waste lands which have been set apart as a provision for the 
clergy of these venerable bodies have hitherto realized no dis- 
posable revenue ;" when this meeting refer to these things, and 
yet, in opposition to such full and ample recognition of the 
rights of the clergy of the church of Scotland, perceive His 
Majesty's solicitor-general asserting, in his place as a member 
of the provincial legislature, that the church of England is the 
established church, that the Roman Catholic church is an esta- 
blished church, but that the church of Scotland is no more an 
established church than that of any other dissenting body in 
in the province; perceiving also that similar opinions are held 
and maintained by other members of the house of assembly, 
advocates for the exclusive rights of the church of England, 
their confidence in the provincial legislature is lost, and thus 
they find it necessary to appeal to His Majesty and the impe- 
rial parliament, for recovering and securing those rights and 
privileges to which the people and clergy of the church of 
Scotland consider themselves so justly entitled by the act of 
union, which provides for a communication of all rights and 
privileges with the subjects of England. 

Moved by Mr. John Oliphant, and seconded by Mr. Strachan: 
'- — Resolved, That this meeting, while they claim for the clergy 
of the church of Scotland, the rights and privileges which belong 
to them in common with the clerg)' of the church of England, 
assume the principle that the clergy of these two churches are 
the only clergy recognized by the laws of the empire as a pro- 
testant clergy, and entitled to participate in the provision made 
for the maintenance and support of a protestant clergy. 

Moved by Mr. A. M^Nab, and seconded by Mr. WilHam 
Mcintosh [Vide end of this Inclosure, Note 2.]: — Resolved, 
That this meeting, while they disavow any wish to deprive the 
clergy of the church of England of their full share of that pro- 
perty to which they are justly entitled as a branch of the protest- 
ant church, or to object to their spiritual authority and ecclesi- 
astical jurisdiction in so far as these are limited to the members 



154 

of their own communion^ and are neither assumed nor exercised 
over the clergy or people of the church of Scotland^ feel them- 
selves warranted in saying that the recent establishment of rec- 
tories^ and the induction of clergymen into these rectories^ were 
measures^ if not illegal^ at least highly impolitic on the part of 
the provincial government^ under the existing circumstances, 
and especially during the pending of those measures of settle- 
ment recommended by His Majesty, in which His Majesty was 
careful to keep in view the just rights of both the protestant 
establishments. 

Moved by Mr. Mason, and seconded by Mr. Oliver Mowat S' 
— Resolved, That this meeting, on behalf of themselves and their 
pastor, reject the compliments paid to them in the " Patriot" 
newspaper, to the disparagement of their fellow churchmen, who, 
seeking a common object with this congregation, had a right to 
exercise their judgment as to the best means of securing it ; nor 
can this meeting forbear to express their concurrence in the 
condemnation, already widely pronounced of the grossly in- 
correct statements and intemperate language respecting their 
church and clergy, of soHcitor-general Hagerman, in the house 
of assembly on the 9th February last. 

Moved by Mr. J. Cameron, and seconded by Mr. M^Murrick : 
— Resolved, That while this meeting, both on account of the 
pure doctrines inculcated in the standards of the church of Eng- 
land, and on account of the estimable Christian quahties exem- 
plified by many in her communion, deeply regret their being 
forced into a position of apparent hostility to that church : they 
feel that not to withstand to the utmost, as is now proposed to 
be done, the unjust and exclusive claims arrogated for her by 
some of her unwise champions, were to betray the best interests 
of the church of Christ in this land, inasmuch as this meeting are 
fully persuaded that the position blindly sought for by the church 
of England, will not only be hurtful to herseK, but in a high de- 
gree prejudicial to the spiritual welfare of multitudes belonging 
to the church of Scotland, who, under whatever destitution of 
pastoral instruction they might for a length of time labour, 
would not connect themselves with the church of England. 

Moved by Mr. Pringle, and seconded by Mr. John Mowat : — 
Resolved, That as it has been proposed that a delegate from each 
congregation of the Scottish church in the Canadas should meet 
at Coburg on the 14th day of April next, for the purpose of pre- 



155 

paring and forwarding a petition to His Majesty and both houses 
of the imperial parliament, and to adopt such other measures as 
may appear to the delegates, when met, best calculated to pro- 
mote the general interests of the church, and to secure her just 
rights, that this meeting now appoint F, A. Harper, Esq., to be 
the delegate from this congregation. 

Moved by Mr. Pringle, and seconded by Mr. Strange : — Re- 
solved, That Messrs. John Mowat, Alexander Pringle, John 
McLean, James Williamson, and Patrick McGregor be a com- 
mittee, to correspond and advise with Mr. Harper on matters 
relative to his mission. 



NOTES. 

Note 1. — Mr. Mowat stated, that he held in his hand ^^ An 
Address to Scotchmen,^^ written by a worthy member of the 
church of Scotland living at a distance, and proposed that the 
meeting should hear it read. This proposal being agreed to, the 
Address was accordingly read, and received with approbation. 

Note 2. — Mr. M^Nab, in moving this resolution, read the fol- 
lowing extract from one of the works of that eminent English 
divine, William Hurd, D. D. : — 

" We have considered the Calvinists, in a general point of 
view, as particularly established in some parts of Europe. We 
shall now consider them as a national church, begun by infinite 
wisdom, supported by almighty power, regulated by unerring 
Providence, and at present one of the glories of the protestant 
world. And here we are sorry to observe, that although the 
people of England are united under one government with those 
of Scotland, yet there are many of the former utterly ignorant of 
the religion of the latter. Nothing is more common in England 
than to call the people of Scotland dissenters; whereas they have 
their own church established by law. Nay, so firmly is the 
church of Scotland established, that it cannot be overthrown 
unless there is a total revolution. 

^^ This will appear evident, when we consider in what manner 
the King of Great Britain swears to protect, defend, and support 
that church. The moment the death of the King is made 
public to his successor, the heir takes his place in the council, 
and it is intimated to him that he cannot be proclaimed till he 
has sworn before their lordships that he will maintain the church 
of Scotland as by law estabhshed. This oath is administered in 



156 

the Scottish fashion, rby the King's holding up his right hand, 
and solemnly swearing that he will do nothing to injure the 
ehurch of Scotland, but support her in all her privileges. A 
copy of this oath is recorded in the books of the privy council ; 
and then a messenger is despatched to Edinburgh, who gives 
it in the court of session, where it is read, and ordered to be 
recorded in the lords' register office. 

'' Here we find a vast privilege bestowed on the church of 
Scotland beyond that of England, for in England the King does 
not swear to maintain the church till his coronation. This 
privilege was claimed by the people of Scotland in that con- 
vention of estates, 1689, wiiich declared the throne vacant, and 
voted in William and Mary. It was again insisted on by the 
w^hole nation of Scotland at the union, 1707; it was claimed, 
not as a favour, but as a right ; and the King of Great Britian can 
no more dispense with it than he can with any of the fudamental 
laws of the constitution. We have been the more explicit on 
this subject, that our readers may be made acquainted with it, 
and that they may know every particular ; for, as a celebrated 
author says, ^ we should not only learn ever}'- thing, but we 
should learn every thing well.' " 



No. 4.4:.— Lord Glenelg to SirF. B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-streeti 2^rd July, 1837. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your des- 
patch of the 30th May, No. 6Q, reporting the circumstances 
under which you have thought it necessary to convene the 
legislature of Upper Canada. 

Much as I regret that strong popular feelings and anxieties should 
have forced upon you any measure which was not entirely con- 
sonant with your own opinions and with those of your executive 
council, I am nevertheless convinced that in calling together the 
local legislature you have adopted the best course which, under 
ail the circumstances of the case, it was possible for you to 
pursue. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 4b.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 29th July, 1837. 

I HAVE had the honour to receive your despatches of the 
24th May, No. 60, and the 8th June, No. 70, on the subject 



157 

of the present financial embarrassments of Upper Canada, in 
consequence of the discontinuance of specie payments through- 
out the continent of North America, and reporting the steps 
which you had taken for the purpose of assisting the Upper 
Canada bank. 

I approve of the measures which, in the pecuUar and difficult 
circumstances of the case, you adopted, although it is impossible 
not to recognize the force of the objections against any issue 
of specie to the Upper Canada bank out of the military chest, 
or the advance to them by the commissary-general of bills on 
the lords of the treasury. The arguments used in Mr. Commis- 
sioner-general Routh's letter, of the 26th May, are conclusive, 
and his conduct on this occasion, having been fully reported and 
explained by himself to the lords commissioners of the treasury, 
has received their lordships' unqualified approbation. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 46.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B, Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 26th August, 1837. 

I HAVE received your despatches, dated 12th and 20th July, 
Nos. 82 and 84, and have had the honour to lay before the 
Queen the report, contained in the former of these despatches, 
of the proceedings of the legislature of Upper Canada in the 
second session of the present year. 

Her Majesty has received, with great satisfaction, the proof 
which has thus been given of the adherence, under circumstances 
of no ordinary difficulty, of the legislature of that important 
portion of the British empire to the principles of commercial 
faith and national honour. Her Majesty is pleased to regard it 
as no ordinary felicity, that the first act of her government, in 
reference to that part of her dominions, should be to give her 
assent to a law conceived in such a spirit, and calculated, as she 
trusts, by sustaining public confidence, to avert the danger in 
the contemplation of which it was passed. 

It has been very satisfactor}^ to the Queen to learn that the 
chartered banks of the province had, down to so late a period 
as the 20th July, persevered in the honourable course of ful- 
filling their engagements, regardless of the risk, or the losses to 
which they might be exposed by keeping faith with their credi- 
tors. Her Majesty is convinced that this sacrifice will be amply 



158 

repaid by the just reliance^ which will be reposed in the honour 
of the conductors of those establishments. 

I am honoured by the commands of the Queen to convey to 
you the expression of Her Majesty's entire approbation of the 
firmness and ability by which your conduct in this trying 
exigency has been 'distinguished. 

I have^ &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 47.— Lord Glenelg to SirF. B. Head, Bart,, K,C.H, 
Sir, Downing- street, 7th September, 1837- 

During the present year, I have received numerous com- 
munications from gentlemen, either resident in England, or 
deputed hither by communities in connection with the churches 
of England and Scotland, on the subject of the present state of 
the ecclesiastical establishments in the Canadian provinces, and 
more especially with reference to the appropriation of the clergy 
reserves. In answer to these communications, I have entered 
at considerable length into the question, and have fully explained 
to the applicants the position and the views of Her Majesty's 
government respecting it. I herewith inclose for your infor- 
mation copies of this correspondence, of which a schedule ac- 
companies this despatch. 

With the previous knowledge which you possess of the sub- 
ject, and the information contained in the accompanying letters, 
it is unnecessary for me to enter into any detailed exposition of 
the present state of the case. It is sufficient to observe, that, 
notwithstanding the instances, which, as you will perceive, have 
been addressed to me by some of the deputies, the objections 
against any interference of the imperial parhament, except at 
the invitation of the Canadian legislatures, appear to be in- 
superable. 

At the same time there is scarcely any question connected 
with public aiFairs in Canada, the settlement of which, on a com- 
prehensive and liberal basis, would be hailed with more satis- 
faction by Her Majesty^s government. 

Independently of its intrinsic interest, this question derives an 
importance which can scarcely be exaggerated from the nature 
of the feehngs which it calls into action. Involving much of a 
religious character, it is approached with sentiments far more 
serious and deeply rooted than are brought to the discussion 



159 

of ordinary political questions. It is therefore with no ground- 
less anxiety that Her Majesty's government have long 
contemplated the unsettled state of this question, an anxiety 
which has been fully justified by the events of the last session 
in Upper Canada. On referring to the pubhc journals I find 
that the settlement of the clergy reserves engaged much of the 
attention of the assembly of that province, and gave rise to 
discussions of miusual length and animation. The intensity of 
the pubhc feeling on the subject is attested by the large space 
devoted to the discussion of it, no less than by the direct 
evidence of many of the gentlemen who have addressed me ; 
while the difficulty of devising a final settlement of the an- 
tagonist claims, and the ill consequences resulting from their 
continual agitation, have induced some of those gentlemen 
earnestly to invoke the interposition of the imperial legis- 
lature. 

Under these circumstances you will readily understand my 
anxiety to contribute by all means in my power to an adjustment 
of the question, and it has appeared to me that the experience 
acquired in other of the British colonies might perhaps be useful 
in suggesting to the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, 
the arrangement of a measure which might be satisfactory to 
all parties. In the colony of New South Wales a great de- 
ficiency existed in the means of religious instruction, a deficiency 
which the unassisted efforts of the inhabitants would have been 
quite inadequate to supply. To remedy this difficulty. Her 
Majesty^s government proposed a plan, the principles and 
details of which you will find fully explained, in those parts of 
the accompanying parhamentary paper which relate to a pro- 
vision for the erection of places of worship, and the maintenance 
of ministers in the Australian colonies, and which have since 
been adopted and embodied in a legislative enactment passed 
by the governor and council of New South Wales, and also in^ 
closed for your information. 

The circumstances of the Australian colonies differ so widely 
from those of Canada, that it would be plainly impossible to 
transfer to the latter country the entire system which has been 
adopted with success in the former. Nor should I venture to 
prescribe to the legislatures of the Canadian provinces the 
principles on which they should endeavour to make provision 
for the religious wants of their fellow-colonists. The inhabitants 



160 

of the Australian colonies belong almost exclusively to the 
churches of England^ of Scotland, and of Rome ; but in the 
Canadas the case is different. There are in those provinces 
many other persuasions of christians forming large communities 
each superintended by a controlling body. The exclusion of 
these communities, from the benefit of a public provision made 
for religious purposes, would be quite inconsistent with the 
design of Her Majesty's government. It is, on the contrary, 
their anxious wish that to all such christian communities assist- 
ance should be afforded, in proportion to their numbers and to 
their necessities. To the maintenance of the actual ministers of 
the churches of England and Scotland in their existing 
emoluments the faith of Her Majesty's government is, as you 
are aware^ distinctly pledged ; but should any arrangement be 
hereafter concluded with the legislatures of Upper and Lower 
Canada for the cession to them of the crown revenues, there 
would be at the disposal of the legislature from that fund, and 
from the other sources of revenue, ample means of providing 
for the erection of places of worship, and the salaries of 
ministers throughout the provinces. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 4S.--Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 4th October, 1837. 

I HAVE had under my attentive consideration your several 
despatches on the subject of the expenses to which you have 
been subjected by your appointment to be lieutenant-governor 
of Upper Canada, and I have felt every desire if possible to dis- 
cover a mode of affording you relief. - 

Your representation embraces three distinct topics, to which 
I shall reply in order : — 

First, you desire to be informed from what funds the expenses 
incurred by you in your inspectional tour through the province 
are to be defrayed. To this question you will have already re- 
ceived the answer contained in my despatch of the 4th January. 
It only remains for me, therefore, on the present occasion, to 
convey to you my approval of the amount and nature of this 
expenditure, as shown by the vouchers which accompany your 
despatch of the 4th February. 

Secondly, you advert to the extraordinary expenses which 
you incurred in consequence of the circumstances under which 



161 

you were despatched to assume the government of Upper Ca- 
nada. Those expenses you estimate at 800/.^, independently of 
the sum required for the conveyance of Lady Head and your 
family to Toronto. You also call my attention to the amount 
paid by you to Sir J. Colborne^ on account of the furniture in 
the government house^ which^ together mth the furniture pur- 
chased by your orders in this country^ amounts to 2^050/. 

You are aware, that by a regulation which has been for many 
years in force, and which equally affects the governors of all the 
British North American provinces, 300/. is the amount of allow- 
ance for outfit and passage on the appointment of a governor. 
There df^cs not seem to be any special ground which could be 
urged for making your case an exception to this regulation, so 
far as relates to those expenses which must, in any case, have 
been incurred on the assumption of the government, especially 
as, contrary to former practice, you were relieved, on my recom- 
mendation, from the payment of the stamp-duty on your com- 
mission. So also with regard to the sums paid by you on 
account of furniture. I regret that I cannot feel myself justified 
in suggesting to the lords of the treasury to assume any portion 
of that expenditure. At the same time I am of opinion that, 
without reference to your particular case, it would be expedient 
to extend to other colonies the rule which has already been 
applied in the case of some of the West Indian colonies, in 
which the furniture of the rooms in the governor's residence, 
required and used for public reception, is provided, not at the 
expense of each successive governor, but from colonial funds. 
On the same principle on which a residence is provided for the 
officer administering the government at the public expense, the 
requisite furniture for so much at least of that residence as is 
employed for public purposes should also, as it appears to me, 
be suppHed. I have therefore to authorize you to suggest to 
the legislature of Upper Canada the propriety of purchasing, 
for the public service, such part of the furniture at present in 
use in the government-house as comes within this description. 
If, as I confidently anticipate, they should accede to this sug- 
gestion, it will be for them to take the necessary steps for ascer- 
taining its value, and to decide in what manner provision should 
be made for its future safe custody, for the use of the lieutenant- 
governor for the time being. In consideration, however, of the 
increased expense necessarily arising from the suddenness of 

M 



162 

your departure for Upper Canada^ the lords commissioners of 
the treasury have sanctioned an increase of 500/. to the allow- 
ance already made to you for outfit and passage. 

You are at liberty^ either to draw forthwith on their lord- 
ships for this sum^ or to grant to your agent in this country a 
power of attorney to receive it for you. If you should prefer 
the former course^ care must be taken to state in the body of 
the bill the service for which it is drawn, and to advise their 
lordships immediately of its number and date. 

Thirdly, you repeat your representations in regard to the 
inadequacy of your emoluments, and you call on me to fulfil the 
expectation formerly held out of an increase of your salary, 
contingent on the result of your longer experience. On this 
point, I will not now question the accuracy of the opinion, 
which you so decidedly express ; but I must confess that, under 
existing circumstances, there is a very serious difficulty in meet- 
ing your wishes. There are no funds in this country from 
which a permanent augmentation of the salary of the lieute- 
nant governor of Upper Canada could bedrawn. An applica- 
tion to parliament for this purpose, in the case of a colony pos- 
sessing ample resources, administered by an assembly which has 
shown no disposition to withhold the requisite funds for any 
pubhc service, would be, if not altogether unprecedented, at least 
so contrary to the principle which has been repeatedly recog- 
nized and acted on, that Her Majesty^s government could not 
feel justified in having recourse to it, even were it hkely to be 
attended with success. Such an application I certainly have 
never contemplated. The provincial revenue is the natural 
resource ; but there are undoubtedly circumstances which may 
make an application to the local legislature for such a purpose 
at the present time inexpedient, and except with their sanction, 
the colonial revenue cannot be rendered available, as I do not 
feel myself at liberty, after the propositions which have been 
made to the legislature of Upper Canada respecting the casual 
and territorial revenue, at once to authorize you to derive from 
that source an additional amount of salary. The question, 
indeed, is one which properly belongs to the provincial legisla- 
ture, and I should be happy to find that they were not indis- 
posed to enter on the consideration of it. Without their inter- 
vention, the difficulty appears to me insuperable. If, however, 
there is sufficient reason to believe, that they would decline to 



163 

sanction any increase to the present amount of salary^, unequivocal 
evidence would be aiForded of the public sentiment on this pointy 
and you would at once be relieved from the obligation which 
you have hitherto felt to maintain the scale of expense observed 
byyo ur immediate predecessors. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 49.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 2Qth October, 1837. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your des- 
patch, No. 99, of the 10th of September last. 

I will not conceal from you the surprise with which I have 
perused that despatch, nor my sense of the degree of public 
inconvenience likely to ensue from so abrupt a termination of 
your administration of the affairs of Upper Canada, at a period 
when the result of your policy in several important questions re- 
mains undecided, and when it is obviously of the greatest conse- 
quence, that measures recommended and instituted by yourself, 
should be followed up under your own superintendence in the 
approaching session of the provincial legislature. 

I therefore feel it is my duty to abstain from laying your 
resignation before the Queen, until I shall have had an oppor- 
tunity of consulting my colleagues collectively as to the course 
which it will be right for me to adopt. The absence of several 
of them from London at the present moment, precludes my 
doing this immediately, although the delay, I trust, will be of 
very short duration. In the meantime, I purposely abstain 
from adverting to any of the topics which you have introduced 
into your despatch. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 50.—-Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B, Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 8th November, ISS7, 

I HAVE received your despatches, Nos. 100 and 101, dated 
on the 11th and 15th of September, inclosing the answers of 
Mr. Hagerman, the attorney-general of Upper Canada, to the 
inquiries which I instructed yon to propose to that gentleman 
in my despatch. No. 200, of the 14th July, 183?. 

It affords me the highest satisfaction to acknowledge tliat Mr, 

M 2 



164 

Hagerman has entirely rescued himself from the imputations 
which formed the ground of the representations transmitted to 
me through a member of the general assembly of the church of 
Scotland. In deference to the authority of the presbytery and 
members of that church at Kingston in Upper Canada^ from 
whom the complaint emanated^ I felt myself constrained to 
pause in submitting to the Queen the confirmation of Mr. 
Hagerman^s appointment as attorney-general_, until he should 
have answered the remonstrance preferred by them against his 
public conduct. Mr. Hagerman^s explicit assurance is sufficient 
to convince me that they must have been misled by erroneous 
information^, and that his conduct was not obnoxious to the 
charge preferred against him. I feel it due to him to add, that 
he appears to have been uniformly solicitous, in the proceedings 
in which he has taken a part on this question, to conform to the 
views of the government, in whose service he was employed. 

Under these circumstances, the Queen has been pleased to 
command that the warrant, appointing Mr. Hagerman attorney- 
general of Upper Canada, and the warrant appointing Mr. 
Draper solicitor-general of the province, should immediately be 
prepared for Her Majesty's signature. 

It gives me great pleasure to make to you this communica- 
tion. The warrants will be delivered to ^^the agents of these 
gentlemen on application at this office. With regard to Mr. 
Draper, it is scarcely necessary to mention, that the only ques- 
tion was, not whether his promotion should be confirmed, but 
whether in a possible contingency he might not have to be 
appointed at once to the office of attorney-general. Mr. Draper 
I know will concur with me in rejoicing that the contingency 
to which I refer has not occurred. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 51. --Lord Glenelg to Sir F, B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Doiuning-street, 24:th November, 1837. 

In my despatch of the 26th of October, No. 238, I acknow- 
ledged the receipt of your despatch of the 10th of September, 
No. 99, and informed you, that I had felt it to be my duty to 
abstain from laying before the Queen your resignation of the 
office of lieutenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada, 
until I should have had an opportunity of consulting my col- 



165 

leagues collectively as to the course which it would be right for 
me to adopt. Her Majesty^s confidential advisers having now 
bestowed their careful attention on the whole subject, I proceed 
to communicate to you the result of their deliberations. 

It is due to my own character, and to the station which I have 
the honour to hold, that I should connect this communication 
with an explicit reference to the various grounds which you 
have assigned in explanation of your conduct on this occasion. 

The first of these topics, however, I shall pass over with a 
very few words. To those who have intrusted me with the 
office which I now fill, I have given the most precise explana- 
tion of the mode in which I have executed the duty of super- 
intending your administration of the affairs of Upper Canada ; 
but to an officer serving under my immediate authority, who 
charges me with having surrendered the exercise of my own 
independent judgment to some invisible and overruling in- 
fluence, exerted for the introduction of republican principles 
into British North America, I need make no reply, contented 
to refer, to his more calm and defiberate judgment, the question 
whether it is fitting that so serious a charge should be conveyed 
in such a form and on such an occasion ? 

Commencing with this topic, you next proceed to announce 
that the system of policy pursued by my predecessors and by 
myself, in reference to British North America, is essentially 
opposed to your own. 

This declaration naturally leads to the inquiry, Vv^hether, 
during the period of our official connection, there has ever arisen, 
until the present time, any material question of practical con- 
duct on which we have differed ? Our abstract principles may 
not have been the same ; in our official correspondence you 
may have occasionally advanced doctrines to which I have not 
been able to give my assent ; such disagreements are more or 
less inseparable from every discussion, between those who at 
once assert for themselves and respect in others the free exer- 
cise of an independent judgment. Habitually indisposed to 
make my official correspondence the channel for the debate of 
abstract questions of policy, I have been content to know that 
you were prepared to obey my instructions, and have felt com- 
paratively very little concern as to the light in which you might 
regard my opinions. Whatever theoretical distinctions may 
have existed between you and me, it is ^t least clear, that, 



166 

subject to the exceptions to be noticed in the sequel, you have 
avowed your entire acquiescence in the whole tenor of my 
instructions, and that every act of which you have been the 
author, involving any of the general and permanent interests of 
the province, I have sanctioned and approved. 

My views of the policy to be obsers^ed, and my instructions 
as to the measures to be adopted by you as lieutenant-governor 
of Upper Canada, were conveyed to you in my despatch of the 
5th of December, 1835. What then has been your language 
and what your course of proceeding, in reference to the rules 
which, in that despatch, I laid down for your guidance ? 

Within three months from your arrival in Upper Canada you 
addressed to me a despatch, dated the 21st of April, 1836, in 
which I find the following passages : — 

" The decided measures which your lordship took promptly to 
correct the alleged grievances which were brought before you, 
have had the happy effect of breaking up the faction which, from 
want of firmness, has long been undermining the constitution of 
this province.^' — " I shall never regret the generous policy which 
attempted to produce here tranquillity by conciliation, for I at 
present owe to it my success.^^ 

After the lapse of three additional months you addressed to 
me a despatch, dated on the 23rd of July, 1836, in which you 
strongly objected to one of the measures directed by my original 
instructions, that, namely, surrender of the territorial revenue of 
the crown to the appropriation of the house of assembly in ex- 
change for an adequate civil fist. I answered (in my despatch 
of the 8th of September, 1836), that from my original instruc- 
tions it was impossible for the government to depart, and that a 
zealous and cordial co-operation on your part, in prosecuting the 
system of pohcy announced in those instructions, was the con- 
dition on which the administration of the province would be 
continued in your hands. I transcribe from your despatch of 
the 7th of November, 1836, acknowledging this answer, the 

following passage : — 

« With respect to the instructions I have had the honour to 
receive from your lordship, I have no hesitation in saying that 
when I received them in England they appeared to me to be 
every thing I could desire. 

" They have formed the text of all the replies I have made to 
the various addresses I have received, and I have invariably 



167 

referred to them as a proof that I was ordered by your lordship 
[ to maintain the happy constitution of this province inviolate, 
yet cautiously and eiFectually to correct all real grievances/ 
The victory I gained over the republicans I attributed (vide my 
despatch, No. 5G), not to my own exertions, but to your lord- 
ship^s instructions/' 

Although you still retained your opinion as to the inexpe- 
diency of the surrender of the territorial revenue, this was a 
difference of opinion only, and involved no practical difficulty. 
Your duty having been discharged by a frank avowal of your 
views on that question, and mine by a declaration equally 
explicit of my adherence to my original decision, the discussion 
reached its close. You acquiesced in giving effect to the fixed 
purpose of His late Majesty^s government on this subject, 
devolving on them, very properly, the undivided responsibility 
for the consequences that might follow. To this resolution, to 
submit yourself to the authority of the ministers of the crown on 
this subject, you adhered so recently as the 22nd of August in 
the present year, that is, only three weeks before the date of 
your resignation ; for, in a despatch dated on that day, you soli- 
cited specific directions for your guidance during the ensuing 
session, as to the details of the proposed surrender of this 
revenue. I might, without much risk of error, add, that your 
opinion, as to the ruinous results to be anticipated from the sur- 
render, had probably undergone a material change, for in your 
despatch of the 22nd August, 1837, you reported that the 
revenue to be given up was hardly equal to the charges upon it, 
and you referred to that circumstance as explanatory of ^^ the 
indifference of the assembly in not at once accepting an offer 
which, in their opinion, might turn out to them a losing bargain.'^ 

With the solitary exception of the proposed surrender of the 
territorial revenue, I had not, from the commencement of your 
administration until my receipt of your despatch of the 10th of 
September, 1837, the slighest reason to know or to surmise, 
that, among the measures prescribed for your adoption in my 
original instructions, there was any one to which you did not 
completely and cordially subscribe ; on the contrary, the re- 
peated assurances which I have quoted from your despatches 
led me to conclude that I might calculate on your zealous ob- 
servance of those instructions, as the rule and guide of your of- 
ficial conduct. If therefore the contrast which you declare to 



168 

have existed between your policy and mine has really prevailed, 
in reference to the specific measures indicated by my original in- 
structions, I can only state that my ignorance of the fact has 
been as unavoidable as it has been complete, 

I have further stated, and I proceed to show, that there is no 
one of your reported acts or proceedings in which the general 
interests of the province were involved which has not received 
my sanction. I refer especially to your choice of executive 
councillors from the popular party, — your subsequent resistance 
to their demands, — ^your acceptance of the resignation of the 
whole council, — your selection of four new members, — your 
opposition to the pretensions of the assembly, — your dissolution 
of the legislature, — your selection of three new judges, — and 
your proceedings respecting the suspension of cash payments. 
This enumeration comprises the whole series of your reported 
measures, affecting any of the general and permanent interests 
of Upper Canada. The more important of them have been 
acknowledged in terms of ample and cordial commendation. 
On the ground of your services you have been rewarded by ad- 
vancement to the dignity of a baronet. The supposed contrast 
between your policy and mine is not, therefore, to be discovered 
in reference to any one considerable measure of which you were 
the author. 

If there really exists any essential difference between us 
respecting the administration of the affairs of Upper Canada, it 
must be a difference reconcileable with your avowed acquiesence 
in all the measures which I prescribed, and with my approval 
and commendation of every material act which you have re- 
ported as having originated with yourself. 

It is indeed sufficiently apparent, from your present despatch, 
that there are some questions on which we differ. The nature and 
the amount of that difference I will subsequently consider. 
But it is necessary, that I should first advert to your remarks 
respecting the government of the neighbouring provinces, to 
v/hich you point as illustrating the dangers of that conciliatory 
policy of which you represent me as the supporter and yourself 
as the opponent. 

Without entering into a digression of great extent, it would 
be impossible for me to explain in this place the grounds on 
which I am prepared to vindicate the whole course and tenor of 
my proceedings in the administration of the affairs of British 



169 

North America. With what success they have been attended 
in Upper Canada^ the preceding quotations from your despatches 
may sufficiently attest. For my immediate purpose it is enough 
to observe^ that, possessing means of knowledge which are not 
within your reach, I cannot defer to your opinion, however con- 
fidently entertained and vehemently expressed. Reflection and 
experience have strengthened my previous conviction, that, not 
on the North American continent only, but throughout the 
whole extent of our colonial dependencies, a firm adherence to 
the principles of the British constitution, so far from being 
incompatible with a system of conciliation, can only be effec- 
tually maintained in connection with that system ; and that the 
surest support of the authority of the crown, in these distant pos- 
sessions, is to be found in a prompt attention to every complaint, 
— in the redress of every real grievance, — in a government act- 
ing for the benefit of the colonists collectively, and not ex- 
hibiting itself as the leader of any single party, — in an im- 
partial justice to all persons; in a word, in that policy 
which you condemn as conciliatory. Little advance indeed is 
made towards any useful conclusion by the mere application, 
whether for the purpose of praise or censure, of a general term 
of this kind to any system of government. Such controversies 
are seldom much more than verbal. But this degree at least of 
notice I could not refuse to your sweeping censure of measures, 
which, I must be permitted to think, you can appreciate but very 
imperfectly. 

With these preliminary remarks I proceed to consider the 
complaints which you have made respecting my conduct in the 
official relation subsisting between us, from its commencement 
to the present time. 

1 . Your first complaint relates to the occurrences which took 
place respecting the office of the surveyor-general. The follow- 
ing are the facts of this case : — 

The office having become vacant, very powerful local interest 
was made to obtain the appointment for Mr. Radenhurst. 
You objected, and on conclusive grounds, to this proposal, and 
conferred the office, subject of course to His Majesty^s pleasure, 
on Captain Macaulay. Within less than a week that gentle- 
man tendered his resignation, and it was accepted. Your 
report of^these circumstances reached me on the 29th of March, 
1836. You left me without any information as to the motives 



170 

or the circumstances which had induced Captain Macaulay to 
surrender the office. You did not inform me whether he was 
still to be regarded as a candidate for the place^ nor did you 
suggest any person as his successor. You did not call upon 
me to make a new appointment. You solicited no instruc- 
tions ; nor was there any measure which it remained for me to 
take on the subject. I therefore waited in silence your expected 
report of the arrangements which you might propose to make, 
for supplying the vacancy occasioned by Captain Macaulay's 
resignation. But as several weeks elapsed without the arrival 
of any further communication from you, I at length, in my 
despatch of the 25 th of July, requested you to make another 
choice. To no part of your proceedings did I object; but, on 
the contrary, I declared my approbation of your refusal to 
appoint Mr. Radenhurst. 

You complain, however, of my inattention and neglect on this 
subject. I answer, that the delay was the unavoidable conse- 
quence of your own postponement of the nomination of Captain 
Macaulay's successor. I might indeed have interposed to fill 
up the vacant office, by an appointment originating with myself; 
but it was my wish and purpose that the new surveyor-general, 
whoever he might be, should be indebted for his advancement 
to your spontaneous act, and to that alone. Aware of the diffi- 
culties of your situation, I was happy to leave in your hands 
this and every other resource for augmenting the number and 
the attachment of your supporters. 

It would therefore have been totally beyond my power even 
to conjecture in what manner I had wronged or embarrassed 
you respecting this office, or what could be the source of your 
dissatisfaction on the subject, if some light had not been thrown 
upon it by facts which I have learnt from Captain Macaulay 
himself. That gentleman presented himself here in the autumn 
of 1836, with a complaint which I communicated to you, and the 
substance of which you have not contradicted. He represented 
that his resignation was not a spontaneous act, but that it was 
made at your request ; that his letter resigning the office of 
surveyor-general, which you had transmitted to me without 
comment, was really drawn up at your own suggestion ; and 
that he had distinctly intimated to you that he was still to be 
considered a candidate for the office. Now, if the fact be that 
you thought Captain Macaulay's appointment desirable, and if 



171 

it was your purpose or wish that I should decline to accept his 
resignation, my omission to take that course may have disap- 
pointed your plans, and so may have been productive of some 
embarrassment to you. But I was in utter ignorance of what 
had privately taken place between Captain Macaulay and your- 
self. His resignation appeared to be perfectly voluntary and 
unconditional ; and in that light alone I received and viewed it. 
If, in this instance, I did not co-operate with you, it was 
because your report left me in total ignorance of any ulterior 
views which you may have entertained in Captain Macaulay's 
favour. 

2. The second case of imputed neglect respects your contest 
with the executive council. Your report on that subject reached 
this office on the 25th of April, 1836, and three months elapsed 
before it was answered. Your present remonstrance imposes on 
me the necessity of explaining this delay. 

I freely acknowledge, that, although your conduct in the 
main appeared to me worthy of commendation, yet in this 
instance I found it impossible, without a sacrifice of sincerity 
and truth, to pronounce regarding it an absolute and unqualified 
approbation. To have announced even a partial dissent at the 
moment of your struggle could not have failed to discourage, 
and might seriously have embarrassed you. I therefore resolved 
to await the result in silence. In case of a failure of your 
measures, I felt that I was thus rendering myself responsible for 
that part of them which I disapproved, no less than for the 
other portion which I might approve. It was, however, my 
determination, that in the event of such a failure, I should 
withhold my opinions, and assume to myself the full responsi- 
bihty for every act in which I had tacitly acquiesced ; but that 
in the opposite event — that, namely, of your success, I should, 
while offering to you the meed of just applause, hazard at the 
same time the frank expression of my dissent, so far as it 
extended. The issue of the struggle was successful in the 
highest degree ; and accordingly, in pursuance of the resolution 
which I had taken, I addressed you on the subject in the month 
of July, 1836, combining, with the cordial language of general 
approbation, not indeed a censure, but a cautious avowal of my 
opinion, that in the contest with the executive councillors one 
step had been taken which it would be difficult to justify. 

The silence which I observed on this subject, from April to 



172 

July-;, 1836^ was therefore the result of no indiiference to your 
difficulties, but the reverse; the motives by which it was dictated 
were, at least, not ungenerous, nor must I omit to add, that I 
had sufficient reason to conclude that a tacit acquiescence on my 
part was really in accordance with your own wishes. In your 
despatch of the 21st of April, 1836, you had deprecated any 
interference with your projected measures, and had stated that 
you were not looking to me for instructions or direct assistance. 
From this language I drew the conclusion, which it still appears 
to me to warrant, and inferred that you would not expect from 
me an opinion on the merits of your preparatory acts, until 
I should be apprised in what manner those measures might, in 
the exercise of the freedom of action which you had solicited, 
be followed up. 

3. The third charge is an imputed omission in acknowledging 
the loyal addresses presented to you by the inhabitants of the 
province. The facts are these. Seventy addresses of this kind 
were transmitted by you, and reached this office in the months 
of June and July, 1838. The receipt of them all, with the 
exception of the nine last, was acknowledged in the same months, 
and the first was noticed in terms of great cordiality ; but the 
subsequent addresses drew from me no remark or statement 
beyond the simple acknowledgment that they had reached my 
hands. It is, therefore, not to the absence of an answer, but 
to the coldness and dryness of the style, that your complaint 
must be supposed to refer. Now it is a general rule, of which 
the motives scarcely need explanation, that congratulatory 
addresses made, not to the sovereign, but to the governor of 
the colony, are acknowledged to the parties by the governor 
only, and not by the secretary of state. In the case of the first 
address which you transmitted, my anxiety to support you 
induced me to break through this formal regulation ; but as the 
addresses multiplied the necessity of adhering to the rule became 
evident ; many of the addresses were conceived in terms sug- 
gested rather by the feelings of the passing day than by views 
to which it was possible to pronounce an unqualified assent. 
Your answers v/ere occasionally drawn up in language, for which 
much allowance was to be made in consideration of the excite- 
ment of the occasion ; but which, writing in the name of the 
King, I could not very properly mark with approbation. The 
only course left was that of silence ; a course the less liable to 



173 

objection, as it was consonant with the general rule to which 
reference has already been made. 

4. The fourth alleged neglect is the omission to notice the 
speech with which you closed the session. That speech reached 
me on the 7th of June, and on the 14th of the same month I 
acknowledged the receipt of the despatch in which it was 
inclosed. It is the established practice to make nothing more 
than a formal acknowledgment of addresses passing between a 
governor and the legislative bodies. This, however, it may 
be said was a peculiar occasion, in which ordinary rules of that 
kind should have been disregarded. This is readily allowed ; 
but the fact is, that the speech in question was one in reference 
to which there were ample reasons for declining to make any 
particular comment. UnwiUing to provoke dissatisfaction by 
quahfied praise, and unable to bestow unmixed commendation, 
I combined my acknowledgment of the speech with a reference 
to your proceedings in general, and thus bestowed on your 
measures the approbation which I could not honestly give to your 
speech ; declaring those measures to have been '' characterized 
by a zeal for the general good of the province, and by an 
energy, firmness, and promptitude of decision which entitled 
you to the cordial sympathy and grateful acknowledgments of 
the ministers of the cro^vn.^^ 

5. Another complaint is, that when my ample acknowledg- 
ments of the measures taken in the spring of 1836 arrived, 
" other minute points were visited with observations which you 
never expected to receive.^^ That the topics to which you here 
advert were minute (that is, of httle importance), might be dis- 
proved by the enumeration of them. That the observations of 
which you complain were expressed in terms the most cour- 
teous, mild, and respectful, cannot be denied, and is not denied 
even by yourself. That the occasion justified and even required 
those observations might be readily demonstrated. 

But, without engaging in needless details, I cannot omit to 
point out the result to which the principle involved in this 
complaint would conduct us. 

The doctrine which you have so strenuously maintained, that 
the local government is responsible, not to the local legislature, 
but to the King, is just and constitutional, but it has invariably 
been connected with the corresponding doctrine, that the re- 
sponsibility to the King must really exist and be in force. 



:74 

upon this you insisted in your addresses to the assembly. This 
also was the language of the original instructions which you 
communicated to that body, and to which you ascribe your 
success. But the professions thus conveyed to the legislature 
would be"a mere illusion and deceit, if the King^s ministers were 
not at Hberty to avow any difference of opinion between them- 
selves and the officer administering the government, although 
the avowal might be couched in terms the most courteous and 
respectful, and although it might be unmixed with censure, and 
connected with cordial eulogy and honourable reward. If even 
such an exercise of the controlling power is to be resented as an 
injury, and denounced as a support to republican principles, 
the acknowledgment is inevitable, that the governors of our 
provinces, so long as they continue to govern, must exercise a 
supreme and irresponsible authority, a principle which, whether 
avowed in terms or tacitly asserted by conduct, is wholly at 
variance with that which Her Majesty's government have 
hitherto maintained, and to which they are determined to 
adhere. 

6. The next subject of your complaint is, that Mr. Sullivan's 
appointment as commissioner of crown lands was first impeded 
by what you have termed a technical objection, and that it has 
not even yet been confirmed. The accuracy of this representa- 
tion may be most fitly brought to the test by a simple statement 
of the real facts of the case. They are as follow : — 

Mr. Sullivan's appointment to the office of commissioner of 
crown lands was communicated to me in a despatch which 
reached me on the 1st September, 1836. At that time plans 
were in agitation for remodelling the crown land departments in 
all the British North American provinces. You had announced 
your intention to make an early report on the land-granting 
system in Upper Canada. At such a moment it would have 
been highly improper to confirm absolutely and without quali- 
fication Mr. Sullivan's appointment, or, indeed, any other 
appointment in that department, because such a confirmation 
would have created a vested interest inconsistent with the 
meditated improvements. Meantime Mr. Sullivan was in pos- 
session of the office. The circumstances which delayed the pro- 
posed alterations in the crown land department in Lower 
Canada need not be stated here. 



175 

Even in New Brunswick it is only within the last autumn 
that they have been completed. 

But on the 28th of January, 1837j, unwilling to incur any 
further postponement, I transmitted to you an explanation of 
the past delay, and confirmed Mr. Sullivan's appointment; 
reserving, however, to the crown the right to make any altera- 
tion which might subsequently be found necessary, either in 
the duties or in the emoluments of the office, without any right 
to compensation on the part of Mr. Sullivan. 

In the interval, that gentleman was not to receive the usual 
appointment under the sign manual, but was to act under your 
nomination; the single object of this arrangement being to 
avoid a measure which might render more difficult any future 
regulation of the office. Finding, however, that you considered 
the absence of this usual form of appointment injurious to Mr. 
Sullivan and embarrassing to yourself, I transmitted the royal 
warrant in my despatch of the 31st of July, 1837, accompanied 
by an express stipulation against its being regarded as a final 
act. Such is the present state of this matter. 

7. You complain of my not having at once advised the 
confirmation by the crown of the appointments of Messrs. 
Hagerman and Draper to the offices of attorney and solicitor- 
general, without a reference back of the subject to you. I beg 
to remind you of the real state of this case. 

In the month of April you appointed, under sanction of an 
act of the local legislature, three new judges, one of whom was 
Mr. Jameson, the then attorney-general. To the office of 
attorney-general, thus vacated, you appointed Mr. Hagerman, 
the solicitor ►general; and this last office you conferred on Mr, 
Draper. All these five appointments were of course provisional, 
and awaited the confirmation or disallowance of the crown. 

The information of these several appointments reached me 
during the illness of the late King, at a time when His Majesty 
could not with propriety be consulted on the subject. Shortly 
after the accession of the Queen, the three judicial appointments 
were confirmed by Her Majesty; but the following circum- 
stances rendered some delay in deciding on the claims of Messrs. 
Hagerman and Draper unavoidable. 

In the despatch delivered to you on your acceptance of the 
government, and by you communicated to the legislature, I 
had, in the clearest terms, declared that no high and confidential 



176 

servant of the crown, who, as a member of the legislature, 
should oppose the policy of the government, would be permitted 
to retain his office. 

A member of the general assembly of the church of Scotland 
had transmitted, for my information, certain printed resolutions 
of the presbytery of that church in Upper Canada, which reso- 
lutions represented that in the session of 1836, Mr. Hagerman 
had, in his place in the house of assembly of Upper Canada, 
held language and pursued a line of conduct highly injurious to 
the character and interests of the Scotch church, and in direct 
opposition to the avowed policy and recorded opinions of the 
ministers of the crown. In fulfilment of the pledge communi- 
cated by you to the assembly, I directed you to call on Mr. 
Hagerman for explanations. These explanations, which have 
been given by that gentleman, promptly and frankly, were 
transmitted in your despatches, Nos. 100 and 101, of 11th and 
15th September, and have proved, I am happy to add, quite 
satisfactory. Mr. Hagerman has distinctly disclaimed the sen- 
timents and language imputed to him, and it is clearly esta- 
blished that the presbytery acted on erroneous information; 
Mr. Hagerman^s appointment as attorney-general has therefore 
been confirmed. Respecting Mr. Draper there never was any 
doubt, excepting whether he should be attorney or solicitor- 
general ; that doubt being now resolved, he has been confirmed 
in the latter office. 

In the whole of this proceeding I have simply adhered to 
the pledges which, in obedience to my instructions, you gave at 
the commencement of your administration to both houses of 
the local legislature. 

8. You represent that the statement which I laid before the 
law officers of the crown respecting the fifty-seven rectories 
established by your immediate predecessor in the government 
of Upper Canada, omitted a most material fact, and that this 
error may throw the whole province into confusion. This 
representation renders it necessary for me briefly to advert to 
the particulars of this case. 

Immediately before the close of his administration, Sir J. Col- 
borne, by an order made by the advice of the executive council, 
established and endowed fifty-seven rectories. Complaints of 
this proceeding were preferred in the house of commons. They 
were answered by the statement that his Majesty's government 



177 

had neither authorized nor even heard o£ the measure. Wheii 
required to supply the necessary information and explanation on 
this subject, you transmitted the order of the lieutenant-governor 
in council, by which the rectories had been established, and you 
expressed your regret at this act of your predecessor, declaring 
that it had constituted one of your mdst serious embarrassments 
in the administration of your government. 

On the receipt of your despatch it occurred to me, as a ques- 
tion of very grave doubt, whether the act was valid or legal. To 
adjust that preliminary question, I consulted the law-officers of 
the crown, and communicated to them the order of the late 
lieutenant-governor in council establishing the rectories, with 
every other document which you had transmitted to me as 
bearing on the subject. The king's advocate and the attorney 
and solicitor-general made a report against the vahdity of the 
endowments, and that report was transmitted to you, with an 
instruction to communicate it to the bishop and the archdeacon, 
and to request them to state whether any material facts had 
been omitted or inaccurately represented in the case laid before 
the law-officers of the crown, and Avhether the law-officers ap- 
peared to have overlooked any view or bearing of the question to 
which their attention ought to have been directed. To this in- 
struction I have not yet received the reply, which of course will 
in due time arrive, and until I receive it, I must reserve my final 
opinion on the case. You maintain, however, that if certain in- 
structions conveyed by Lord Bathurst to two precedin^gover- 
nors, in the reigns of their late majesties King George^he third, 
and King George the fourth, had been laid before the law^ officers 
of the crown, their decision must have been entirely differj^^ 
Without prejudging a subject, which must hereafter be referred 
to those learned persons, I will merely state that the materiality 
of the omission of those instructions to the question at issue, 
seems to me very doubtful. But if the statement laid before 
the law-officers of the crown was essentially defective, the re- 
sponsibility does not rest with me. The order of Sir J, Col- 
borne in council proceeded avowedly on Lord Ripon's instruc- 
tions, and on them alone, and neither in the order itself, nor in 
your despatch transmitting it, was the slightest allusion made to 
any other foundation of the measure. I therefore had no ground 
to conjecture that the creation and endowment of the rectories 
rested on a different basis. Called upon to supply all the neces- 
sary information on the subject, you omitted that, which, as it 

N 



178 

now appears, you regard as the fundamental fact in the whole 
ease* This omission not only left me in ignorance that the or- 
der of the lieutenant-governor in council, rested on the authority 
of Lord Bathurst^s instructions, but necessarily led me to con- 
clude that the authors of the measure rested its defence entirely 
on the instructions of the Earl of Ripon. That this is not the 
fact I had never heard nor surmised until your despatch of the 
10th of September reached me. 

9. You remonstrate against the remarks which I made, in 
my despatch of the 6th of June, 1837, respecting Mr. Draper^s 
mission to this country. I think it necessary therefore to re- 
mind you of the real state of this case. 

Mr. Dunn, the receiver-general of Upper Canada, obtained, 
in the year 1835, under the authority of an act of the local legis- 
lature, and on the credit of the revenues of the province, large 
loans from the house of Wilson and Go. of London. These 
contracts were made by Mr. Dunn in person, without even the 
knowledge of His Majesty's government. There was no record 
in this country of the nature and terms of them ; the whole 
rested in the personal knowledge of Mr. Dunn. 

The insolvency of the American houses justly alarmed you as 
to the possibility of obtaining payment of the sums due in Lon- 
don to the provincial treasury, and in order to explain that and 
some other financial questions you directed Mr. Draper to re- 
pair to England. Mr. Draper brought with him no official and 
but little personal knowledge on the subject ; and in my de- 
spatch of the 6th of June I expressed ^^ my regret that any other 
person than Mr. Dunn should have been selected as the mes- 
senger of the provincial government on this occasion. What- 
ever'^ (I observed) " may have been Mr. Dunn's political con- 
duct, yet, so long as he retains the office of receiver-general, 
he should be permitted to discharge the duties and to sustain the 
responsibility connected with it. In the present case, this is 
peculiarly important, because the loans vath the commercial 
houses were negotiated by him, and no other person can, with, 
any plausibility, lay claim to a knowledge equally intimate of the 
real state of those transactions.'^ 

Such is the censure of which you complain. It remains to 
state the sequel of the transaction. Mr. Dunn ultimately came 
to England, though at his own expense, to prosecute claims of 
the province. The whole account was adjusted by him in Lon- 
don. He transferred to a banking-house in the city, the 



179 

management of the affairs formerly conducted by Messrs. Wilson 
and Co., and, having wound up the whole business, returned to 
Upper Canada. Thus, while Mr. Draper, who had it in his 
power to render but very slight assistance, came to England at 
the public expense, and as the agent of the local government, 
Mr. Dunn, in whose department the question lay, and by whom 
the w^hole business was transacted, had to bear his own charges, 
and accomplished a result most important to the province. 

10. Another specific complaint urged in your despatch is, 
that I employed, not Mr. Draper, but another gentleman, as 
the bearer of my desprtches to you, respecting the financial 
affairs of the province. Even this complaint, slight as it may 
appear, must not pass unnoticed. 

I fully intended to make Mr. Draper the bearer of the 
despatches in question. With that view he was requested to 
attend at this office. He promised to do so ; but from causes 
unexplained and unknown to me, Mr. Draper left England 
without presenting himself at this office, and the employment 
of another messenger was therefore a matter of inevitable 
necessity. These facts were communicated to you on the 4th 
of August. ^Vhen you wrote your despatch of the lOth of Sep- 
tember you had probably not received that communication. 

In the preceding observations I beg to state that I mean to 
make no complaint of Mr. Draper, nor to imply the slightest 
reflection upon him of any kind. My opinion of that gentleman 
has been sufficiently attested by the confirmation, since that 
time, of his appointment as solicitor-general of the province. 

The next topics to which I have to advert, demand the more 
particular notice, as they appear to be regarded by you as the 
more immediate and prominent grounds of your resignation. 

11. You remonstrate against my instruction on the subject of 
Mr. Bidwell^s eventual promotion to the bench, in case of a 
future vacancy, and you declare your determination never to 
carry that instruction into effect. Your opposition is vindicated 
by the objections which you make to the political career of 
Mr. Bidwell, and which you insist ought to have forbidden the 
adoption by Her Majesty's government of any resolution 
favourable to that gentleman's employment in the service of 
the crown. 

My estimate of Mr. Bidwell's character and claims to ad- 
vancement to the bench had been derived chiefly from your 

N 2 



180 

Own despatches. It was on no lower authority that I adopted 
the opinion that he was properly eligible for that distinction. 
You now inform me that you had drawn his character with a 
light and feeling hand. You had, however, acknowledged Mr. 
Bidwell to be a gentleman of great abihties, of the first eminence 
in his profession, and of irreproachable private character. I 
knew, indeed, that he had formerly taken a very prominent 
part in opposition to your own measures, and those of your im- 
mediate predecessor. You had stated that his object, ^^ so far 
as it could be elicited by the conduct of his associates,^^ was to 
separate Upper Canada from the parent state ; and you had 
claimed my assent, in reference to this gentleman, to the pro- 
position, ^* that w^iere a man acts with disloyal associates, his 
talents aggravate rather than extenuate his oifence.^^ I had 
further been apprised that Mr. Bidwell had entirely retired from 
pohtical hfe, confining himself to the duties of his profession, 
and had ceased to act with the party of which he had formerly 
been a member. Such was my information when I instructed 
you eventually to ©O'er to Mr. Bidwell a seat on the bench. I 
confess that it did not appear to me fit that under such circum- 
stances he should be punished by a permanent and irreparable 
incapacity for a promotion to which, on the grounds of private 
character, no objections could be raised; and to which, on the 
grounds of professional eminence, he had the highest possible 
title. It appeared to me dangeroiis, or rather impracticable, to 
govern the province on the principle of a proscription of the 
whole of one large body of the inhabitants. You now, indeed, 
make the additional statement, that Mr. Bidwell was a member 
of a revolutionary society, called '^' The Provincial Convention." 
Of this fact I was totally ignorant until the receipt of the very 
despatch now under consideration. By a despatch from you of 
a still later date, namely, the 22nd of September, it appears that 
a letter, bearing the date of the 3rd of August, and the signature 
of ]Mr. Bidwell, was published at Toronto, on the 20th of Sep- 
tember, in which Mr. Bidwell expressly declines to be a member 
of that society, and complains of the unauthorized use of his 
name for that purpose. In reporting this fact you assume that 
the date which the letter bears was purposely falsified ; that 
Mr. Bidwell had heard of the intentions in his favour, and had 
published his letter with a false date, in order to remove an 
objection v/hich might have obstructed his advancement. On 



181 

what authority this accusation is made you have not explained; 
and without some such explanation I could not impute, what 
would be in effect, a wilful violation of truth to a gentleman 
whose moral character is unimpeached by his most decided 
political antagonists. If, however, the only practical ground of 
difference between you and me had been the promotion of Mr, 
Bidwell, I should have been anxious, for the present at least, to 
defer to the strong opinion which you have expressed against 
my recommendation. Mr. Bidwell had certainly no claim of 
strict right to the promotion in question, Every selection of 
that kind is an act of discretionary authority, in which the 
government is not only at liberty, but is bound to weigh all 
conflicting, prudential considerations, on either side ; and w^hat- 
ever may have been my views respecting Mr. BidwelPs appoint- 
ment, I do not scruple to admit, that if I had been to make my 
choice between the execution of that purpose and your con- 
tinuance in office, I should not have hesitated to prefer the 
latter alternative. 

12. But Mr. Ridout's case is of a different complexion; 
and with respect to it I am compelled to acknowledge my irre- 
concileable dissent from your judgment and conclusions. 

In the despatch to which I am now replying, the particulars 
of this case are recapitulated but briefly, and therefore with that 
kind of inaccuracy which is inseparable from the abridgment of 
any considerable extent of detail. On the other hand, in the 
correspondence w^iich has taken place on this subject, and which 
is comprised in the despatches referred to in the margin, will be 
found a full and careful investigation and statement of every 
material circumstance. To that correspondence I refer with 
confidence, as proving that the course which I pursued was 
imperatively forced upon me by the duties of my office, and by 
the obligations of justice to Mr. Ridout, and of good faith to the 
province at large. 

I think it necessary, however, to preface the remarks I have 
to make on this subject by a short summary of the facts, as they 
are to be collected from the papers before nie. 

You dismissed Mr. Ridout from the offices Qif colonel of the 
militia, judge of the district court of Niagara, and justice of the 
peace, and caused a letter to be addressed to him, in which that 
measure was stated to have been taken, on the ground that it 
appeared that he was an active member of a societv which had 



182 

circulated an address insulting to your person and office. Mr. 
Ridout distinctly denied that he was a member of that society ; 
that he had had anything to do with drawing up the address in 
question^ or that he had even seen it until it was in circulation^ 
in prints through the city of Toronto. He transmitted to you 
evidence on oath in corroboration of his statement. As you 
took no notice of his complaint, he placed in your hands an 
appeal to myself, having first requested, in terms to which no 
possible objection could be made, that if there were any other 
reasons for his dismissal than that which you had assigned to 
him he might be informed of them. You did not comply with 
this request ; but, in transmitting to me his appeal, you imputed 
to Mr. Ridout various acts of misconduct, to which no allusion 
had been made in your correspondence with him. I answered 
you by stating, in effect, that in deciding on Mr. Ridout's 
appeal it was impossible for me to advert to any other grounds 
of accusation, than that which had been made knowTi to Mr. 
Ridout as the cause of his dismissal. 

I explained the reasons which led me to regard as satisfactory 
Mr. Ridout's defence against the charge of which alone he had 
been informed ; and I signified to you His late Majesty's com- 
mands, that Mr. Ridout should be permitted to resume the 
various employments from which he had been removed. Against 
this decision you remonstrated in your despatch of the 6th 
February. You then, for the first time, informed me that you 
had acted on this subject with the advice of the executive 
council. In my reply of the 5th April, after stating my dissent 
from some of the principles which you had maintained with 
reference to this case, I further addressed you in the following 
terms : — " From your despatch of the 6th of February, I now, 
however, for the first time, learn that Mr. Ridout's removal from 
office was recommended by the executive council ; and I further 
leam, that they adhere to their original opinion. On this sub- 
ject I have to state, that I have never expressed, nor do I now 
entertain, any judgment opposed to theirs ; on the contrary, I 
entirely agree with them, that the various acts of misconduct 
ascribed to Mr. Ridout in your despatch of the 12th September, 
and still more fully stated in your despatch of the 6th of Feb- 
ruary, are such as would, if substantiated on proper inquiry, 
justify the very severe penalty inflicted on him. 

" If I am to understand the council as thinking that such an 



183 

inquiry was needless, I must, with whatever reluctance, differ 
from them. The grounds of that difference, I have already, in 
part, explained. But I must f.dd, that if there be any one class 
of public officers in whose case it is especially incumbent on the 
executive government to proceed with caution, circumspection, 
and with a strict observance of all the essential forms of pro- 
ceeding on such occasions, it is the class of those who are in- 
trusted with the administration of justice. 

^' In avowing my opinion, that the matters laid to the charge 
of Mr. Ridout w^ould, if established, justify his dismission, I 
wish to be understood as not referring to the intemperate terms 
in which he addressed you after his removal from office. Much 
allowance is to be made for natural feelings under a sense of 
supposed injury. It is to the other allegations that my remark 
applies. 

"It is, I can assure you, painful to me to take any course of 
conduct which may aggravate the difficulties of your situation, 
yet I feel myself bound by the paramount obligations of justice 
still to withhold my approbation of the measures adopted in 
Mr. Ridout^s case. On the other hand, his restitution to office 
may, I think, be properly made to depend upon his ability to 
exculpate himself from the various charges preferred against 
him in your despatches of the I2th of September and the 6th of 
February. To this extent, the instructions conveyed to you in 
my despatch of the 29th of November, are withdrawn and qua- 
lified. Further than this it is impossible for me to advance. 
You will, therefore, in whatever mode you shall think best, put 
Mr. Ridout in possession of those accusations, and after weigh- 
ing his answer, and the evidence by which it may be supported, 
you will communicate to me the result.^' 

I have entered on the preceding statement as necessary to 
explain and justify the very material fact which I am desirous 
to record. That fact is, that the instructions, which you now 
refuse to obey, do not direct Mr. Ridout^s reinstatement. In 
the exercise of the authority with which I was invested, I directed 
you to place a judge whom you had dismissed from office, in 
possession of the grounds of that very grave proceeding, before 
I could confirm his removal. I called upon you to render to 
him that measure of justice which the humblest member of 
society is entitled to demand, by making known to him what 
were the reasons on which the representative of his sovereign 



184 

had sentenced hijn to degradation and punishment. This is the 
instruction which you meet with a direct and positive refusal. 
Such is one of the most prominent grounds on which, at a 
inoment of extreme embarrassment and difficult^r, you have re- 
signed the administration of the government of Upper Canada. ' 

Your dehberate refusal to obey my instructions of the 5 th of 
April, is communicated to me, for the first time, in a despatch 
dated on the 10th of September. It is to be collected from 
other communications of yours, which are recorded in this 
office, that my despatch of the 5th April had reached your hands 
on the 26th of June ; that is, between two and three months 
before the date of the peremptory declaration, that on this point 
at least, you would not conform to the unequivocal instructions 
of your official superior. You must permit me to say, that 
your purpose ought to have been much sooner announced. I 
cannot acknowledge the justice or propriety of leaving me so 
long in ignorance of such a decision, and of the resignation which 
you represent, as immediately and unavoidably connected with it. 

I have thus noticed, separately and distinctly, the various acr 
eusations of which^ in your despatch of the 10th of September, 
you have made me the object. I have not stopped to comment 
pn particular expressions, or on the general tone and style of that 
communication. The respect with w^hich Her Majesty^s go- 
vernment have invariably acknowledged your public services, is 
too sincerely entertained to leave room for any other feeling, 
than that of regret, in contemplating the position which you 
have thought it proper to assume with relation to them. So 
long as I could rely on your assurance that your policy would 
be regulated by the instructions which you had received from 
me, I felt fully justified in continuing in your hands the admi- 
nistration of the province. You now, however, inform me that 
you have felt it your duty frankly to disclose to me opinions 
and sentiments, which, being hostile to the policy of the office 
over which I preside, ought not to be withheld from me. You 
have accompanied this disclosure with a positive refusal to carry 
my instructions into eflfect, in a case in which that refusal involves, 
not only disobedience to my directions, but actual injustice to- 
an individual who has appealed to me for redress. 

Under these circumstances Her Majesty's ministers have, af- 
ter the fullest deliberation, thought it their duty to tender to the 
Queen their advice that your resignation should be accepted ; 



185 

jand 1 have received her Majest)^s eommands to signify to you 
her acceptance of it accordingly. 

In conformity with your request^ your successor will proceed 
to Upper Canada with the least possible delay. In the 
meantime I rely on your devoting the short period of your 
future administration of the affairs of Upper Canada, to the 
protection and advancement of those highly important in^ 
terests which, during the last two years, have been intrusted 
to your guidance with so much advantage to the public service. 

I have, &c. 
(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 52,— Lord Glenelg to Sir R B. Head, Bart., K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 30th December, 1837. 

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch of the 
18th November, No. 124, inclosing copies of a correspondence 
which had passed between yourself and Sir J. Colborne, relative 
to calling out the militia of Upper Canada to assist in suppress- 
ing the revolt in the lower province, and containing some sug- 
gestions as to the course which, at the date of your despatch, it 
would, in your opinion, have been most advisable for Her Ma- 
jesty^s government to pursue towards Lower Canada. 

Although the events which have taken place since the date of 
your despatch, have rendered these suggestions inapplicable to 
the actual state of the province, I feel it due to you to offer my best 
thanks for the communication of them, and to express my con- 
currence in much of what you have stated with reference to 
this subject. I approve the answer which you returned to Sir 
J, Colborne on the subject of the Upper Canada mihtia, and I 
have no doubt of the prudence of the course which you have 
pursued, and the soundness of the discretion which you have 
exercised, in regard to the late proceedings in the vicinity of 
Montreal. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. 5S. — Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir G. Arthur, K.C.H. 
Sir, Downing-street, 30th December, 1837- 

It is necessary that on your arrival in Upper Canada, you 
should be prepared with definite instructions for your guidance, 
in reference to the case of Mr, George Ridout, to which the 



186 

correspondence enumerated in the margin, has given an acci- 
dental but grave importance. 

If the state of the Canadian province at present, had been 
substantially the same as when Mr. Ridout's appeal against his 
removal from office was discussed, between Sir F. Head and 
myself, I should be prepared to abide, without any qualifica- 
tion, by the instructions which I addressed to your predecessor 
on the subject ; but when I advert to the fact, that one of the 
districts of the lower province is the scene of an open insurrec- 
tion, I at once acknowledge that the crisis may demand and 
justify the postponement of almost any private and individual 
claim, the discussion of which might endanger the pubhc safety. 
I refer, therefore, impUcitly to your own judgment, guided by 
the information which will reach you on your arrival in Upper 
Canada, the question whether any communication shall or shall 
not then take place with Mr. Ridout, on the subject of his un- 
answered appeal from your predecessor to His late Majesty j 
and I authorize you to decline for the present, any communi- 
cation with him respecting it, if you shall find cause to conclude 
that the effect would be to give to a particular party a hazardous 
triumph, or to raise a popular misconception, dangerous to the 
public tranquillity ; in that event, you will defer any notice of 
his case until the danger shall have passed away. But if, on the 
other hand, you should be satisfied that the revival of the dis- 
cussion would be unattended with any such risk, you will 
inform Mr. Ridout that his appeal reached me, but that circum- 
stances, into which you decline to enter, had unavoidably post- 
poned until now, my answer to it. You will then transmit to 
him a statement of the grounds on which the executive council 
dissuaded his restoration to office, and will apprise him, that 
before I can express a final opinion, I shall be ready to receive 
and consider any answer, which he may think proper to make 
to the charges so preferred against him. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 

No. 54. — Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir G. Arthur, K,C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, SOth January, 1838. 

I HAVE received, and have laid before the Queen, Sir F. 
Head^s despatch of the 19th December last. No. 132, reporting 
the recent events which up to that date had occurred in the 
province of Upper Canada. Her Majesty has learned, with the 



187 

deepest regret, that at a moment of profound tranquillity, and 
in the absence even of any plausible pretext for resistance to 
lawful authority, an attempt should have been made to effect an 
insurrectionary movement, and to attack the loyal and peaceable 
inhabitants of the city of Toronto. 

Her Majesty, however, has observed with peculiar satisfac- 
tion, the zeal and enthusiasm with which the militia of the 
province came forward, unsupported by the presence of any of 
Her Majesty^s regular troops, for the suppression of revolt, the 
protection of property, and the defeat of the interested designs 
of a few disaffected individuals. 

Highly as Sir F. Head had estimated the attachment of the 
people of Upper Canada to Great Britain, it is evident that he 
had not overrated their sentiments in this respect, but that he 
was fully justified in placing the strongest reliance in their fidelity 
and loyalty. 

The energy and decision evinced by Sir F. Head and the 
militia of Upper Canada, after the first appearance of open dis- 
turbance, have received the Queen's high commendation, and 
Her Majesty has been pleased especially to notice the gallantry 
and activity of Colonel Allan M^Nab, the speaker of the house 
of assembly. To that officer, and to the militia of Upper 
Canada generally. Her Majesty has commanded me to direct 
that you will communicate Her thanks for the zeal which they 
have displayed on this occasion. 

The Glueen has learned with deep concern the murder of 
Colonel Moodie, in his endeavour to apprize the executive 
government of the preparations which were in progress among 
the insurgents. I am commanded to convey, through you, to 
Colonel Moodie's family, the expression of Her Majesty's sym- 
pathy with their loss. 

I trust that, with this exception, the loyal inhabitants of the 
province have sustained little, if any, loss in the course of the 
recent transactions. I shall, however, await with anxiety, 
though with a full confidence in the means which the province 
possessed within itself of resisting any sudden attack, the report 
of further proceedings to which reference is made in public 
papers, of a date subsequent to' that of Sir F. Head's despatch. 
I have adverted to this subject in a despatch to Sir J. Colborne, 
with whom you will of course communicate without reserve, as 



188 

to the most effectual means of defeating any attempt at a hostile 
aggression on the territory of Upper Canada. 

You are called on to enter on your government at a moment 
of such peculiar difficulty^ that the state of excitement in which 
you will find the province can scarcely fail to interrupt the 
ordinary course of business during the present session of the 
provincial legislature ; I trusty however^ that order and tranquil- 
lity will speedily have been restored, and that no material 
obstacle will have been created to the furtherance of those 
objects of public interest and advantage, which it will be your 
earnest endeavour, in concert with the two branches of the pro- 
vincial legisUture, to effect, I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG, 



No, 55, — Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir G.Arthur, K.CH, 
Sir, Downing-street, 16th March, 1838. 

I HAVE received Sir F. Head's despatch, No. 11, of the 26th 
January. As he no longer occupies any official station, I 
abstain from all comment on that despatch, except with refer- 
ence to the only practical question which is involved in it. I 
allude to the case of Mr. Ridout, with respect to which, I think 
it my duty to acquaint you, that I see no reason to alter the 
opinion which I have before fully expressed, or to qualify the 
instructions which I have addressed to you, for your guidance. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG, 



No. 56. — Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir Q, Arthur, K.C.H, 
Sir, Downing-street, I'Jth March, 1838, 

I HAVE received Sir F. Head's despatch. No. 12, of the 30th 
January, reporting the dispersion of the Americans who had 
taken part with the insurgents on the frontier of Upper Canada. 
Having already addressed to you such instructions as I thought 
necessary, as to the maintenance of the militia force in the 
province, I have orily to express my concurrence in the pro- 
priety of the course which, under existing circumstances, was 
adopted by Sir F. Head, with reference to this subject, mor§^ 
especially as the most recent accounts indicate a state of con- 
siderable excitement upon the frontier, against which every 
proper precaution should undoubtedly be taken. I cannot. 



189 

liowever, omit to notice the terms in whieii Sir F. Head has 
expressed himself, with respect to the inhabitants of the United 
States, a country in amity with Great Britain, and the govern- 
ment of which has evinced the most friendly feelings towards 
this country during the recent disturbances. While the attempts 
of individual citizens of the United States, to aid the cause of 
insurrection and rebellion in Canada, cannot be too strongly 
reprobated. Her Majesty^s government deprecate any counte- 
nance being given to a general feeling of hatred and detestation, 
among any portion of the subjects of the British crown towards 
America ; and I cannot but regret that language should have 
been used by the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, opposed 
to that spirit of amity and goodwill, which it is the earnest desire 
of Her Majesty^s government to maintain towards the govern- 
ment and people of the United States, no less than towards 
those of any other power maintaining friendly relations with 
this country. 

I am confident, that while you will be prompt to vindicate 
the authority of the British crown, and to maintain the inte^ 
grity of the province, you will not only abstain from any con- 
duct or language calculated to inflame angry passions, or increase 
excitement, but will, by every means in your power, cherish and 
diffuse a better and more friendly feeling towards the neighbour- 
ing states. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No. b'],—Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir G, Arthur , K.CH^ 
Sir, Downing-street, 20th Aprils 1838. 

I HAVE had the honour to receive Sir F. Head^s despatch of 
the 14th of March, No. 33, reporting the defeat, by the forces 
under the command of Colonel John Maitland, of the insurgents 
who had taken possession of Point Pele Island in Upper Canada. 

I had previously received a report of this transaction from lieu- 
tenant-general Sir J. Colborne, and enjoyed the satisfaction of 
conveying, through him, to Her Majesty^s troops and to the 
militia and volunteer corps engaged on that occasion. Her 
Majesty's high sense of their loyalty, zeal, and gallantry. I 
trust that Sir F. Head is correct in anticipating that, after the 
signal defeat that has attended the insurgents on this and on 
every occasion, when they have attempted to invade the British 
territory, no further attacks of a like nature will be made. 



190 

No. 58.— Lord Glenelg to Sir F. B. Bead, Bart,, K,€,H, 
Sir, Downing-street, 25 th April, 1838. 

I HAVE had the honour to receive the despatch which you 
addressed to me on the 23rd January in the present year, on 
the subject of your pecuniary demands upon Her Majesty's 
government. I regret to be obhged again to touch on that 
subject ; but I cannot, in justice to myself, avoid oifering some 
observations in reference to the view which you take of it. 
You observe that I am aware that you " accepted the govern- 
ment of Upper Canada against your inclination and against 
your judgment. '^ I must say that I cannot receive in silence such 
a representation, especially when made the basis of a pecuniary 
claim. I must beg to disavow any knowledge whatever of the 
fact, that in accepting your late office, you acted in opposition 
either to your inchnation or to your judgment. When I offered 
you the government of Upper Canada, we met as strangers to 
each other. I had no sort of personal claim on you, and 
possessed neither the power nor the wish to bias your judgment 
or to control your inclination. 

You quote from my despatch of the 2nd of March, No. 41, 
the following passage, which you characterize as a ^' distinct 
promise -'' namely, that ^^ if after a sufficient length of observa- 
tion it shall be estabhshed to your satisfaction and my o^vn, 
that your official income is inadequate to the demands to which 
your office reasonably subjects you, I shall think it my duty, 
not for your sake, but with a view to the permanent interest 
of the public at large, to stipulate for the necessary increase 
as a part of that civil list for which Her Majesty's hereditary 
revenue is to be surrendered.'^ I readily acknowledge the 
pledge contained in these words, and from the fulfilment of it 
I have never shrunk, nor am I now disposed to evade it. On 
the contrary, assisted by all the information within my reach, I 
have endeavoured, on the nomination of your successor, to ascer- 
tain the amount of the demands to which the officer of lieuten- 
ant-governor of Upper Canada would reasonably subject the 
holder of it. My conclusion was, that an annual income of 
3,500/. would be adequate to this purpose. I drew that conclu- 
sion partly from your representations, and partly from a compa- 
rison of your officical income with that of the other lieutenant- 
governors of Her Majesty's provinces in North America. 
The result has been to induce me to think that your salary 



191 

was fixed at too low a rate by the annual sum of 500Z. I there- 
fore instructed Sh' George Auther to stipulate with the house 
of assembly for an annual income for the lieutenant-governor 
of 3^500/. The demand thus made prospectively in his case, 
I have since instructed him to make retrospectively in yours. 
You wiU therefore receive, either from the grant of the assembly 
or from the revenues at the disposal of the crown, an additional 
salary at the rate of 500/. per annum, in respect of the period 
of your administration of the government. 

You state that your aide-de-camp '^ drew your income, paid it 
away, and only came to you to supply out of your private funds 
the deficiency, and that you felt it was hopeless to be trying 
experiments against facts such as you had submitted to me, or 
to ruin yourself in contending against arithmetic/^ From these 
expressions I collect that your annual expenditure was con- 
ducted by your aide-de-camp, and that it largely exceeded your 
annual official income. Sincerely as I regret this fact, I must 
remind you, that the pledge given in my despatch of the 2nd 
March, 1836, was not to indemnify you against the expenses 
which might be incurred in your household, but only to stipulate 
with the assembly for an official income adequate to the demands 
to which your office reasonably subjected you. 

To the complaints which you prefer of my conduct towards 
you on this subject, it would not be difficult to find an answer 
in the language of several of your former communications, in 
which you abandoned in the most unequivocal terms, all claims 
for increase of salary, on condition of receiving the rank of a 
baronet, which was afterwards conferred upon you. But 
without dwelling at present, as I should be quite justified in 
doing, on expressions of that nature, however distinct, and 
however often repeated with apparent deliberation, my reply to 
the charge of having failed to fulfil my engagement, and of 
having allowed you " to sink day after day, and week after week, 
month after month, and year after year, deeper and deeper into 
debt,^^ is simply this : — you accepted the office of heutenant- 
governor of Upper Canada with a distinct knowledge of the 
amount of the income belonging to it ; when you found that 
this income would be inadequate, and reported the fact to me, I 
gave in my despatch of the 2nd of March, 1836, the pledge 
already quoted to stipulate with the assembly for such an 
increase as should be adequate to the demands to which your 



192 

office reasonably subjected you. That stipulation lias not yet 
been made^ only because circumstances entirely beyond my 
control postponed during the whole of your administration the 
settlement of the civil-list question. In order to relieve you 
from the difficulties attendant on the shortness of the time 
which elapsed between your appointment and your departure 
from England, you have already been apprised of the intention of 
the lords of the treasury^ to apply to parliament to grant you 
the unusual allowance of £500^ in addition to the sum of £300 
which you received^ according to the usual practice, to defray 
the expenses of your outward voyage, and you will receive 
£300 to defray the charges of your return home. The stamp 
duty on your commission, amounting to £200, has been remitted, 
and you have yet £1,000 to receive on account of the retrospec- 
tive increase of your salary. Thus, in addition to £600 for 
passage money, you will, in respect of your two years* service, 
be in the receipt in the whole, of allowances exceeding by 
£1,700, the amount of the salary on which you accepted your 
office. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 59.— Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir G. Arthur, ICCH. 
Sir, Downing-street, 25th April, 1838. 

On the 23rd of last January, Sir F. Head addressed to me a 
despatch, recapitulating the former correspondence which had 
passed between us on the subject of his emoluments, and 
demanding from Her Majesty's government repayment of certain 
expenses therein stated, amounting in all to £2,950. As this 
question is of a personal nature, my answer has been, of course, 
addressed to Sir F. Head himself; but as the subject is one, 
not unconnected with a due administration of the government 
of Upper Canada, and as it occupies a prominent place amon^ 
the points brought into discussion, during the last two years, 
between Sir F. Head and myself, I think it right to transmit to 
you herewith, a copy of my letter to him, in order that it may 
be placed among the records of Upper Canada. 

In conformity with the intention, which I have intimated to 
Sir F. Head, I have to desire, that in bringing under the notice 
of the house of assembly of Upper Canada, at their next meet- 
ing, the propositions which you have been authorized to make 
for the surrender to them of the casual and territorial revenue. 



193 

you will stipulate that whatever emoluments may be prospec- 
tively attached to the office of lieutenant-governor^ beyond the 
sum enjoyed by Sir F. Head^ should be granted retrospectively to 
him^ for the two years^ during which he executed the duties of 
that office. I cannot doubt that both branches of the local legis- 
lature will concur in the justice of this course, and will wiUingly 
agree to a measure, having for its object to indemnify an officer 
whose services they have acknowledged in such honourable 
terms. If, however, the legislature of Upper Canada should 
not agree to this proposal, or acquiescing in the propriety of an 
increase of the lieutenant-governor's salary, should yet fix that 
increase below the sum specified in my despatch to you of the 
28th December last, I have to desire that you will remit to 
Sir F. Head, out of the casual and territorial revenue of Upper 
Canada, the amount necessary to make up the allowance of 
£1,000 promised to him in the inclosed letter, in addition to 
the salary attached to the office of lieutenant-governor at the 
time when he accepted it. I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



No, 60. — Lord Glenelg to Major-General Sir G. Arthur, K.C.H, 
Sir, 29th July, 1838. 

Having communicated to Sir F. B. Head, a copy of the 
despatch, which I addressed to you on the 25th April last, 
directing the payment to him of an extra allowance of £500 for 
each of the years, during which he administered the govern- 
ment of Upper Canada, he has observed to me, that the terms 
of that despatch are, in his opinion, calculated to convey an 
impression that the question of the amount of his emoluments 
formed a prominent feature in those discussions which ultimately 
led to the resignation of his office. I think it due to Sir F. B. 
Head to state, that I did not intend to convey the impression 
that the question of his emoluments, though the frequent sub- 
ject of discussion, constituted the ultimate ground of his resig- 
nation. Of this, indeed, your are already fully av/are. 

I have, &c. 

(Signed) GLENELG. 



PRINTED DY J. HARRISON AND SON, ORCHARD-STREET, WESTMINSTER, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 374 616 7 




•^^s- =<iin^'^ 



